DONALD 

HIGH      SCHOOL. 


Alcove  No. 
Shelf  No. 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


' 


v^C 


AND 


PARAGRAPHIC  PENCILINGS. 


W.  J.  SCOTT,  D.D., 

NORTH     GEORGIA     CONFERENCE. 


COPYRIGHT  SECURED. 


CONSTITUTION  PUBLISHING  Co., 

ATLANTA,   GA. 

1892. 


PREFACE. 


CON  This  volume  contains  a  part  only  of  the  literary  work 

r^  ^* 

c/j  z       of  the  last  two  years. 

fc  It  is  gratefully  inscribed  to  friends  both  new  and  old 

OB  ^        — whose  steadfast  loyalty  has  been  an  inspiration  to 

2  c5 

^  THE  AUTHOR. 

o 

§  January  1st,  1892. 

ui 

z 


HISTORIC  ERAS. 


THE  STORY  OF  MAGNA  CHARTA, 


"England  is  the  freest  country  in  the  world. — Montesquieu.'' 


IT  is  a  singular  fact  that  Henry  Hallam,  in  the  main 
an  astute  and  learned  historian,  should  have  commenced 
his  "Constitutional  History  of  England"  with  the  acces 
sion  of  Henry  VII.  It  is  as  though  Von  Hoist,  or 
whoever  else  should  undertake  a  constitutional  history 
of  the  American  government,  should  utterly  ignore  the 
administration  of  Jefferson  and  the  "era  of  good  feel 
ing"  under  the  presidency  of  Monroe,  and  begin  with 
the  fatuous  and  fateful  administration  of  Abraham  Lin 
coln.  For  while  it  is  true  that  Henry  VII.,  by  his  vic 
tory  on  Bosworth  field  and  his  intermarriage  with  Eliza 
beth  of  York,  united  in  his  own  person  the  rival  claims 
of  York  and  Lancaster,  yet  the  Tudor  dynasty  that  he 
founded  was  in  many  respects  the  most  arbitrary  known 
to  English  history. 

Indeed,  the  formative  period  of  the  British  Constitu 
tion  begins  with  the  reign  of  Henry  I.,  the  youngest 
son  of  the  Conqueror,  and  culminates  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  III.,  of  the  house  of  York.  Then  it  was  that 
Parliament  became  a  two-chambered  legislative  body, 
composed  of  Lords  and  Commons,  the  former  consist- 


8  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

ing  of  the  peers,  temporal  and  spiritual,  and  the  latter 
of  the  knights  of  the  shire  and  the  burgesses. 

If,  however,  we  would  rightly  understand  the  story 
of  the  Magna  Charta,  we  must  needs  go  back  to  the 
era  of  the  Norman  conquest.  That  conquest  involved 
the  thorough  subjugation  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  people. 
They  were  utterly  impoverished  by  wholesale  confisca 
tion.  The  records  of  the  domesday-book  show  that 
in  the  aggregate  not  less  than  six  hundred  baronies  and 
sixty  thousand  knightly  fees  were  distributed  among 
the  followers  of  William  of  Normandy.  Besides  this  im 
poverishment,  there  was  both  political  and  ecclesiastical 
disfranchisement.  For  one  hundred  years  after  the 
decisive  battle  of  Hastings  no  man  of  English  blood  and 
birth  was  admitted  to  the  ranks  of  the  nobility.  In 
the  Church  they  were  equally  discounted  by  their  Nor 
man  masters.  The  prelates  and  other  higher  clergy 
were  either  born  in  foreign  parts  or  descendants  of 
those  who  came  over  with  the  Conqueror.  The  first 
notable  break  in  this  record  of  Saxon  disqualification 
was  made  by  Henry  II.  in  his  nomination  of  Thomas 
Becket  for  the  see  of  Canterbury.  The  fact  that 
Becket  was  born  on  English  soil,  although  of  Norman 
lineage,  may  have  had  somewhat  to  do  with  his  subse 
quent  brutal  assassination  by  a  party  of  Norman  gentry. 

Beyond  all  else,   however,  was  the   thorough  social 
degredation   of  the  Saxons.       Macaulay  tells   us  that 
during  several  reigns  a  Norman  could  kick  an  English 
man  with  impunity  and  at  will.     In   a  word,  they  were 
a  despised  and  downtrodden  race. 


MAGNA    CHARTA.  9 

Henry  I.,  surnamed  Beauclerc  because  of  his  schol 
arly  attainments,  to  whom  reference  has  already  been 
made,  did  much  to  remedy  this  social  evil  and  to  hasten 
the  ultimate  federation  of  the  two  races.  He  earnestly 
sought  to-  conciliate  his  English  subjects.  Some  have 
suggested  that  he  was  moved  to  this  by  his  dread  of  the 
rival  claims  of  his  eldest  brother,  Robert,  Duke  of  Nor 
mandy,  who  had  grown  weary  of  his  crusading  advent 
ures.  For  this  purpose  it  is  thought  that  he  espoused 
Maude,  the  daughter  of  Malcolm,  king  of  Scotland, 
and  of  Matilda,  the  sister  of  Edgar  Etheling,  who  was 
unquestionably  the  legal  heir  of  Edward  the  Confessor. 

Whatever  the  motive,  this  marriage  contributed 
greatly  to  the  social  uplifting  of  the  English  people. 
The  Normans  resented  the  alliance  as  an  open  insult 
to  their  race,  and  sought,  says  one  historian,  to  retali 
ate  by  nick-naming  Henry  "Farmer  Godric. "  The 
English  fully  realized  the  significance  of  the  event,  and 
were  jubilant  when  Archbishop  Anselm  placed  the 
crown  on  the  head  of  an  English  princess.  "Hence 
forward,"  says  the  same  historian  (Green),  "the  blood 
of  Cedric  was  intimately  blended  with  the  blood  of 
Rolfe — the  ganger — the  first  Duke  of  Normandy." 

Another  long  stride  in  the  same  direction  was  the 
issuance  by  Henry  of  a  charter  whose  principal  pro 
visions  were  the  basis  of  the  Great  Charter  of  Runni- 
mede.  Other  influences  operated  to  lessen  the  estrange 
ment  between  Norman  and  Saxon,  but  none  nor  all  of 
these,  including  the  whole  administration  of  Henry  II 
and  the  rapid  growth  of  the  burgher  population,  was 


IO  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

so  effectual  as  when  the  two  races  stood  shoulder  to 
shoulder  with  hand  linked  in  hand  in  the  face  of  a  com 
mon  peril  and  in  the  establishment  of  a  common  liberty. 
This  last-named  event  brings  us  to  the  era  of  Magna 
Charta. 

John,  the  seventh  king  of  the  Anglo-Norman 
dynasty,  came  to  the  throne  at  an  evil  juncture.  A 
cloud  of  suspicion  hung  over  him  because  of  the  mur 
der  of  his  own  nephew,  Arthur  of  Brittany,  which 
murder  he  is  thought  to  have  instigated.  This  promis 
ing  young  prince  was  greatly  endeared  to  the  English 
people,  not  only  as  the  rightful  heir  to  the  throne 
through  Geoffrey,  the  oldest  son  of  the  late  King  Rich 
ard,  but  because  he  bore  the  name  of  the  great  Keltic 
hero.  The  last  reason  was  a  mere  sentiment,  but 
sentiment  is  not  to  be  lightly  esteemed.  In  this  in 
stance  at  least  it  led  many  to  regard  the  coronation  of 
John  with  pronounced  disfavor.  But  he  came  to  the 
throne  at  an  evil  juncture  for  other  reasons:  he  had  as 
a  contemporary  ruler  Philip  Augustus,  the  most  chiv- 
alric  sovereign  that  had  occupied  the  French  throne 
since  the  days  of  Charlemagne. 

Philip  was  the  Boulanger  of  that  period,  and  was 
intent  on  the  solidarity  of  France.  H  e  was  not  satis 
fied  that  Normandy  and  Anjou  and  other  provinces 
should  continue  as  appendages  to  the  Norman  kingdom 
in  England,  and  was  determined  to  expel  John  from  the 
Continent.  The  new  English  sovereign  was  neither 
the  "coward"  nor  the  "trifler"  that  Macaulay  and 
Hume  have  both  affirmed.  Whatever  the  defects  of 


MAGNA    CHARTA.  I  I 

his  character  (and  these  we  do  not  seek  to  extenuate), 
he  was  neither  lacking  in  courage  or  capacity.  It  has 
been  justly  said  that  he  was  the  ablest  of  the  Angevin 
kings,  and  that  the  awful  lesson  of  his  life  is  that  it  was 
no  idle  voluptuary,  but  the  friend  of  Gerald  and  the 
student  of  Pliny  "that  lost  Normandy,  became  the 
vassal  of  the  pope,  and  died  in  a  desperate  fight  against 
English  liberty." 

The  English  people  were  greatly  dissatisfied  with  his 
civil  administration,  because  of  exactions  under  the 
name  of  aids,  benevolences,  and  similar  unconstitutional 
levies  in  which  he  exceeded  even  his  iather,  the  lion- 
hearted  Richard.  Nor  could  he  inspire  them  with  any 
zeal  for  his  continental  wars  waged  for  the  recovery  or 
extension  of  his  domains  beyond  the  channel.  But 
above  all  were  they  indignant  at  his  slavish  surrender  of 
his  crown  and  kingdom  to  Radulphe,  the  papal  legate, 
and  his  solemn  oath  to  hold  England  as  a  fief  of  the 
Holy  See ;  so  that  when  he  was  driven  from  the  Con 
tinent  by  the  disastrous  battle  of  Beauvais  he  found 
neither  respect  nor  sympathy  in  his  island  kingdom. 

The  statement  that  he  was  abandoned  by  the  entire 
English  nobility,  except  five  faithful  liegemen,  is,  per 
haps,  too  highly  colored,  but  it  is  true  that  in  this 
extremity  he  was  confronted  by  "a  nation  in  arms." 

We  have  already  intimated  that  the  Magna  Chatta 
was  no  essential  novelty,  but  was  simply  an  elaboration 
and  broader  application  of  the  principles  of  the  charter 
promulgated  by  Henry  I.  This  charter  was  confirmed 
by  Henry  II.,  but  in  the  later  reigns  of  Stephen  of 


12  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

Blois  and  Richard  I.  it  was  overlooked,  and  gradually 
faded  from  public  memory.  Just  as  the  book  of  the 
law  was  buried  for  long  years  in  the  rubbish  of  the  tem 
ple,  until  its  providential  discovery  during  the  reign  of 
Hezekiah,  so  this  priceless  charter  was  afterward  ex 
humed  from  the  dust  and  debris  of  a  monastery.  Man 
kind  are  chiefly  indebted  for  its  resurrection  to  the 
researches  of  Stephen  Langton,  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury. 

In  the  mediaeval  period  of  European  history  there 
was  no  lack  of  soldier  priests  and  warrior  bishops  who, 
whether  in  broil  or  battle,  oftentimes  exhibited  a  per 
sonal  daring  worthy  of  the  Spartan  Leonidas.  Lang- 
ton  did  not  belong  to  this  class  of  belligerent  Church 
men,  but  to  those  cardinal  statesmen  like  Wolsey  and 
Richelieu  of  a  later  historic  period.  While  Langton 
had  been  thrust  upon  the  English  Church  and  people 
by  the  arbitrary  act  of  Innocent  III.,  yet  from  the 
beginning  he  manifested  his  sympathy  for  the  English 
people  and  his  reverence  for  the  traditions  of  Anglo- 
Saxonism. 

In  an  assembly  of  the  barons  at  St.  Paul's,  London, 
he  produced  the  charter  of  Henry  I.,  and  urged  them 
to  make  it  the  basis  of  their  contest  with  King  John. 
They  accepted  Langton's  counsels,  and  pledged  them 
selves  to  its  faithful  observance. 

After  divers  evasions  and  subterfuges  on  the  part  of 
the  king,  with  the  details  of  which  we  are  not  at  pres 
ent  concerned,  being  hard  pressed  by  the  popular 
clamor  and  yet  more  by  the  primate,  he  decided  to 


MAGNA    CHARTA.  13 

summon  the  barons  and  their  retainers  to  a  personal 
conference  at  Runnimede,  an  island  in  the  Thames, 
between  Staines  and  Windsor,  henceforth  to  be  es 
teemed  the  incunabula  gentis  nostrae ;  or,  as  Henry 
Rogers  has  translated  it,  "the  cradle  of  the  British 
giant." 

Stephen  Langton,  with  the  advice  and  counsel  of 
the  barons,  had  drawn  up  the  charter  which  was  sub 
mitted  to  John  in  June,  1215,  and  after  a  brief  discus 
sion,  it  was  signed,  sealed,  and  delivered  and  ordered 
to  be  published  throughout  the  realm.  As  a  guarantee 
for  its  execution,  the  king,  for  the  time  being  thor 
oughly  humbled,  consented  to  surrender  the  city  and 
Tower  of  London  to  the  keeping  of  the  barons.  In 
addition  he  accepted  the  over-lordship  of  twenty-four 
of  their  number,  who  were  empowered  by  the  explicit 
terms  of  the  Great  Charter  to  levy  war  against  John  or 
any  of  his  royal  successors  who  should  attempt  its  revo 
cation,  or  even  its  infringement.  Against  these  obvi 
ously  hard  conditions  John  raved  and  gnashed  his  teeth 
in  impotent  rage. 

It  is  now  in  order  to  examine  some  of  the  leading 
stipulations  of  "this  key-stone  of  English  liberty." 

It  is  worthy  of  observation  that  all  classes,  clergy 
and  laity,  all  sorts  of  men,  from  the  greatest  baron  to 
the  humblest  rustic,  were  provided  for  in  one  or  another 
of  its  articles. 

"The  freedom  of  elections"  says  Hume,  "was  secured 
to  the  clergy,  nor  were  they  compelled  to  wait  for  a 
royal  conge  d1  elite  and  subsequent  confirmation  of  their 


14  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

choice.  All  checks  upon  appeals  to  Rome  were  re 
moved  and  the  fines  imposed  on  the  clergy  for  any 
offense  were  to  be  proportional  to  their  lay  estates  and 
not  to  their  ecclesiastical  benefices. 

Important  restrictions  were  likewise  imposed  upon 
the  king,  touching  the  so-called  aids  exacted  of  his  ten 
ants  in  chief.  These  were  formally  abolished,  except 
in  three  notable  instances ;  the  ransoming  of  the  king 
in  the  event  of  his  captivity,  the  knighting  of  his  eldest 
son,  and  the  marrying  of  his  eldest  daughter.  Nor  was 
he  hereafter  permitted  to  levy  reliefs  upon  wards  when 
they  came  to  their  majority,  or  to  exact  of  widows  any 
portion  of  their  dower  in  their  husbands'  estates. 
They  were  also  restrained  in  the  matter  of  compulsory 
marriages,  a  royal  franchise  that  had  been  greatly 
abused  to  the  sore  discomfort  of  the  nobility.  It  was 
moreover  stipulated  that  the  greater  barons  should  be 
summoned  to  the  Great  Council  by  special  writ,  and 
that  the  lesser  barons  should  be  summoned  by  the  sher 
iff  forty  days  before  the  holding  of  its  sessions.  The 
levying  of  all  aids,  except  the  three  feudal  aids  already 
mentioned,  was  strictly  forbidden  without  the  consent 
of  the  Great  Council  first  obtained.  We  note  in  this 
the  germ  of  a  great  principle  which  is  now  fundamental 
to  the  British  Constitution. 

As  from  a  grain  of  mustard  seed  there  springs  a 
great  tree  in  whose  branches  the  fowls  of  heaven  find 
shelter,  so  from  this  germinal  principle  has  sprung  that 
English  law  which  requires  that  all  money  bills  must 
originate  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  that  a  vote  of 


MAGNA    CHARTA.  15 

supplies  must  be  preceded  by  a  redress  of  political 
grievances.  The  English  race  in  both  hemispheres 
have  from  time  immemorial  been  exceedingly  jealous 
of  any  encroachment  on  this  line.  Emerson  has  force 
fully  said  that  the  Englishman  is  no  great  stickler  about 
mere  abstractions,  "but  if  you  lay  hands  on  his  day's 
wages,  or  his  cow,  or  his  right  of  common,  or  his  shop, 
he  will  fight  to  the  judgment."  So  the  American 
colonists,  while  yet  a  feeble  folk,  resented  nothing  so 
much  as  the  policy  of  the  mother  country  in  the  matter 
of  parliamentary  taxation.  In  this  respect  they  occu 
pied  common  ground  with  John  Hampden,  who  went 
to  prison  rather  than  submit  to  an  unconstitutional  levy 
of  twenty  shillings.  Charles  I.,  despite  the  abuses  of 
the  Star  Chamber  and  of  the  High  Commission  court, 
would  have  died  quietly  in  his  bed,  and  not  as  a  royal 
culprit  on  the  scaffold,  had  he  not  violated  this  provi 
sion  of  Magna  Charta.  From  it  came  Triennial  Par 
liaments,  Annual  Mutiny  bills,  and  eventually  the  over 
throw  of  the  rotten  borough  system  of  parliamentary 
representation.  Not  a  single  pound  sterling  can  be 
drawn  from  the  royal  exchequer,  either  for  the  civil  list 
or  the  maintenance  of  the  army  or  navy,  without  a  vote 
of  the  Commons. 

Another  striking  feature  of  the  Great  Charter  was 
the  provision  for  a  fair  and  regular  administration  of 
justice.  Hitherto  the  court  of  common  pleas  was 
ambulatory — following  the  king's  person  from  place  to 
place  to  the  serious  detriment  of  suitors  and  witnesses. 
Hereafter  this  important  tribunal  was  required  to  sit  at 


1 6  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

Westminster,  and  the  judges  of  assize  as  well  were 
compelled  to  make  four  circuits  annually  throughout 
the  kingdom.  It  was  likewise  stipulated  by  the  king 
for  himself  and  his  successors  that  justice  should  in  no 
wise  be  sold,  denied,  or  delayed — a  most  valuable 
safeguard  against  judicial  negligence  and  corruption. 

In  behalf  of  the  merchants  and  even  itinerant  trades 
men  it  was  agreed  that  there  should  be  one  weight  and 
one  measure  for  the  entire  realm,  and  that  this  class 
should  have  liberty  to  go  and  come  at  will,  and  should 
be  subjected  to  no  unlawful  tolls  or  imposts.  In  this 
connection  it  was  further  stipulated  that  the  "ancient 
liberties"  and  "free  customs"  of  London  and  other 
cities,  and  even  of  boroughs,  should  be  conserved. 

Hume  has  well  said  that  if  the  provisions  of  the 
Magna  Charta  had  ceased  with  those  already  named 
there  would  have  been  little  reason  for  popular  rejoic 
ing.  But  the  mailed  barons,  who  wrested  the  charter 
from  John,  were  fairly  considerate  of  the  welfare  of 
the  lower  classes.  Wherefore  it  was  further  ordained 
that  "all  the  privileges  and  immunities  above  mentioned 
granted  to  the  barons  against  the  king  should  be  ex 
tended  by  the  barons  to  their  inferior  vassals."  As  an 
additional  security  to  the  masses  it  was  likewise 
ordained  that  "the  king  should  grant  no  writ  empower 
ing  a  baron  to  levy  aid  from  his  vassals,  except  the 
three  feudal  aids."  Likewise,  in  the  24th  section,  it 
was  provided  that  in  felonies  there  should  be  no  forfeit 
ure  of  a  villain  cart  or  implements  of  husbandry,  nor 
should  the  small  tradesman  forfeit  "all  his  wares."  In 


MAGNA    CHARTA.  I/ 

all  such  cases  a  sufficiency  was  left  the  offender  to  save 
him  from  utter  impoverishment.  But  the  chief  section 
was  that  which  furnished  a  guaranty  for  the  per 
sonal  liberty  of  the  subject.  This  is  numbered  the 
39th,  and  is  of  itself  worth  all  the  blood  and  treas 
ures  that  has  been  expended  in  its  maintenance.  This 
famous  section  is  in  the  words  following:  "No  free 
man" — nullus  homo  liber — "shall  be  taken  or  impris 
oned,  or  disseized,  or  outlawed,  or  banished,  or  any 
ways  injured;  nor  will  we  pass  upon  him  nor  send  upon 
him  except  by  the  legal  judgment  of  his  peers  or  by 
the  law  of  the  land."  It  is  well  understood  that  the 
constructions  of  this  section  have  been  exceedingly 
variant.  Sir  Edward  Coke,  the  renowned  jurist,  says 
in  his  institutes  that  "  this  section  involves  presentment 
by  a  grand  jury  and  subsequent  conviction  by  a  petit 
jury.1'  Thus  interpreted  it  strikes  a  death-blow  at  all 
arbitrary  arrests,  and  unlocks  every  prison  door  where 
a  victim  of  tyranny  is  confined.  For  hundreds  of 
years  there  have  been  frequent  and  flagrant  violators  of 
these  provisions.  Indeed,  it  was  never  adequately 
enforced  until  the  great  Writ  of  liberty  was  secured  by 
the  Habeas  Corpus  act  in  the  thirty-first  year  of  Charles 
II. 

It  is  not  out  of  place  to  say  that  in  the  Bill  of  Rights 
prefixed  to  the  Constitution  of  Georgia,  that  great 
popular  tribune,  Robert  Toombs,  caused  to  be  inserted 
this  clause :  "That  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  shall  never 
be  superseded."  In  the  body  of  the  Constitution, 
however,  was  inserted  the  usual  exception,  "unless  in 


I  8  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

times  of  invasion  or  insurrection  the  public  safety  may 
require  it."  In  all  cases,  however,  the  party  having 
custody  of  the  prisoner  must  make  some  return  to  the 
magistrate  issuing  the  writ.  No  greater  tribute  was 
ever  paid  to  the  majesty  of  this  law,  and  the  sacredness' 
of  the  writ  based  on  it,  than  when  Andrew  Jackson, 
after  refusing  for  urgent  military  reasons  obedience  to 
it,  subsequently  paid  the  fine  of  one  thousand  dollars 
imposed  by  the  civil  magistrates  without  any  sort  of 
compulsion.  Such  conduct  was  worthy  the  hero  of 
New  Orleans. 

But  we  here  resume  the  thread  of  the  story  of  the 
Magna  Chart  a.  It  is  evident  that  King  John  yielded 
to  the  demands  of  the  barons  because  there  was,  for  the 
time  being,  no  possibility  of  successful  resistance.  He 
embraced,  however,  the  earliest  opportunity  to  renew 
the  struggle.  For  a  time,  with  the  help  of  Rome,  he 
proved  an  overmatch  for  the  barons  and  their  allies. 

The  English  crown  was  tendered  to  Lewis,  the  son  of 
Philip  Augustus,  and  accepted.  Upon  the  arrival  of 
Lewis,  the  French  followers  of  John  deserted  him,  and 
after  divers  military  disasters  his  kingly  fortunes  were 
again  reduced  to  the  lowest  ebb.  Feeble  and  sore 
broken,  he  died  in  a  gluttonous  debauch,  abandoned  of 
God  and  despised  of  men. 

Upon  the  king's  death,  the  English  patriots  made 
haste  to  rid  themselves  of  the  royal  supremacy  of 
Lewis.  By  a  sort  of  compromise  he  was  induced  to 
withdraw  to  the  continent.  Thereupon,  Henry,  a  nat 
ural  son  of  John,  was  crowned  in  his  ninth  year,  with 


MAGNA    CHARTA.  19 

William  Earl  Mareschal  as  Regent,  the  earliest  example 
of  a  regency  in  British  history.  The  regent  was  distin 
guished  for  his  devotion  to  the  Great  Charter,  and  one 
of  the  earliest  acts  of  the  new  reign  was  its  solemn  con 
firmation  by  king  and  council.  These  confirmations 
were  repeated  oftentimes  in  future  years.  Indeed,  so 
immense  was  the  popularity  of  the  charter  that  for  sev 
eral  centuries  the  sovereigns  of  England,  when  hard 
beseiged  by  popular  clamor,  were  wont  to  pledge  them 
selves  in  solemn  form  to  its  faithful  observance.  And 
yet  it  is  but  sheer  candor  to  say  that  its  wholesome 
restrictions  were  often  trampled  upon  both  by  king  and 
Parliament.  Notwithstanding,  it  would  again  and 
again  assert  itself,  so  that  after  many  bloody  contests, 
even  down  to  the  "glorious  revolution"  of  1688,  from 
which  epochal  event  it  has  been  futly  recognized  as  the 
basis  of  the  British  Constitution.  Nor  does  it  savor  of 
exaggeration  to  affirm  that  it  is  now  thoroughly  inter 
woven  with  every  fibre  of  the  body  politic ;  and  we 
furthermore  reverently  say  that  its  line  has  gone  out 
into  all  the  earth  and  its  sound  to  the  ends  of  the  world. 
At  the  British  Museum,  in  London,  among  other 
precious  relics  of  an  heroic  past,  there  is  one  that  rivets 
the  gaze  of  every  visitor.  It  is  a  tattered  copy  of  the 
Magna  Charta,  This  venerable  parchment  is  yellowed 
by  age  and  shriveled  by  fire,  and  from  it  depends  the 
royal  seal  of  King  John.  What  the  Palladium  was  to 
the  countrymen  of  Priam  is  the  Magna  Charta  to  the 
compatriots  Wolfe,  Sidney  and  Wellington.  By  the 
illiterate  English  masses  it  may  be  reverenced  as  a  sort 


2O  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

of  national  fetich,  but  by  the  enlightened  Britton  it  is 
regarded  as  the  symbol  and  memorial  of  a  gallant  strug 
gle  that  laid  broad  and  deep  the  foundation  of  British 
liberty.  Through  all  the  eight  hundred  years  of 
England's  matchless  history,  it  has  been  the  inspiration 
of  her  most  illustrious  leaders,  whether  in  the  arena  of 
arms  or  in  the  forum  of  high  debate.  In  the  fourteenth 
century  it  nerved  Henry  V.  at  the  gates  of  Harfleur, 
when  he  once  more  summoned  his  discomfited  troops 
to  the  deadly  breach,  and  gave  them  as  their  victorious 
battle-shout 

Now,  God  for  Harry,  England,  and  Saint  George! 

The  imperishable  memory  of  Runnimede  steadied  the 
British  infantry  amid  the  storm  and  stress  of  Waterloo, 
when,  in  the  crisis  of  the  conflict,  the  great  Napoleon 
hurled  his  "Old  Guard"  like  a  thousand  catapults 
against  their  bristling  and  impregnable  squares 

At  a  later  day,  even  within  the  memory  of  men  now 
living,  it  emboldened  the  immortal  six  hundred  when 
they  rode  right  into  the  "jaws  of  hell"  at  the  dreadful 
pass  of  Balaklava. 

These  same  principles  inspired  England's  great  Com 
moner,  the  elder  Pitt,  when  in  the  house  of  Peers  he 
rebuked  with  the  sternness  of  a  Hebrew  prophet  the 
ministry  of  Lord  North,  and  concluded  his  masterful 
Philippic  by  solemnly  invoking  the  genius  of  the  Brit 
ish  Constitution.  They  tingled  in  the  nerves  of  our 
own  Henry  when,  standing  in  the  old  House  of  Bur 
gesses,  at  Williamsburg,  he  roused  a  young  nation  to 


MAGNA    CHARTA.  21 

arms  by  his  eloquent  denunciation  of  the  Stamp    Act 
and  the  Boston  Port  bill. 

Moreover,  we  take  quite  too  narrow  a  view  of  the 
scope  of  the  Magna  Charta  if  we  circumscribe  its  influ 
ence  by  any  geographical  limitations.  Indeed,  in  some 
way  it  has  prompted  every  manful  endeavor  for  relig 
ious  and  political  freedom  that  has  signalized  the 
onward  march  of  universal  humanity.  Not  only  among 
English-speaking  people,  but  among  all  liberty-loving 
races,  even  from  old  Thermopylae  to  New  Gettysburg, 
the  principles  of  that  Great  Charter  have  been  the  rally 
ing  cry  of  downtrodden  and  yet  defiant  patriotism. 

William  the  Silent  planted  himself  on  these  primal 
truths  of  government  when  he  cut  the  dykes  of  the  Ger 
man  Ocean,  and  let  loose  the  avenging  sea  on  his  coun 
try's  invaders  and  despoilers.  So  William  Tell,  the 
hero  of  the  Forest  Cantons,  felt  their  glow  all  uncon 
scious,  it  may  be,  of  their  mighty  meaning,  when  he 
bearded  "Gessler"  at  the  gateway  of  Altorf,  and  when 
again  he  shouted  in  the  ear  of  the  Alpine  storm,  com 
pared  with  which  "the  storms  of  other  lands  are  but 
summer  flaws,1'  the  memorable  words: 

"  Blow  on,  this  is  the  land  of  liberty  !  " 

Every  intelligent  reader  will  have  observed  in  our 
hurried  comment  on  the  leading  provisions  of  the  Great 
Charter  that  it  contains  no  dreamy  philosophism  like 
the  "Utopia"  of  Sir  Thomas  Moore,  or  the  "Contract 
Social"  of  Rousseau.  They  will  have  noticed,  likewise, 
that  its  statements  are  more  terse  and  exact  than  the 


22  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

glittering  generalities  of  our  own  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence.  Rather  it  is  a  clear  and  yet  concise  embodi 
ment  of  the  principles  of  statesmanship  that  must  ulti 
mately  work  out  the  political  redemption  of  mankind. 
We  speak  words  of  truth  and  soberness  when  we  say 
that  the  enthronement  of  these  principles  among  all 
nationalities  is  the  necessary  prelude  to  that  golden  age 
of  which  Isaiah  prophesied  and  Virgil  sung.  Then,  and 
only  then  will  the  story  of  the  Magna  Charta  be  ended 
amid  the  jubilee  of  humanity — "redeemed,  regenerated, 
and  disenthralled  by  the  irresistible  spirit  of  universal 
emancipation." 


CROMWELL.  23 


A  LATE,  distinguished  writer  has  said  that  the  horo 
loge  of  time  seldom  strikes  the  great  eras  of  human  his 
tory.  In  the  main  these  great  eras  are  unheralded 
whether  by  portent  in  earth  or  sky,  and  unannounced 
by  prophecy  whether  human  or  divine. 

Not  one  of  the  four  greater  prophets  of  ancient  Israel 
foretold  the  assembling  of  the  States-general  of  France 
in  October,  1789,  nor  the  summoning  of  the  Long  Par 
liament  of  England  in  November,  1640.  Yet  these  are 
the  pivotal  events  of  modern  history.  The  former  was 
the  day  dawn,  or  rather  the  night-dawn  of  the  era  of 
bloodshed,  involving  terrorism,  Napoleonism,  and  what 
else  relates  to  that  stormy  period  of  European  history. 
The  latter  was  the  birth  hour  of  the  Cromwellian  era, 
with  its  Rupert  chivalries  and  its  Ironside  invincibilities, 
with  its  murder  of  one  king  and  the  precipitate  flight 
of  another.  To  this  last  named  historic  period  we  dvote 
this  paper  on  Cromwell  and  his  times. 

In  the  closing  year  of  the  sixteenth  century,  in  the 
pretty  village  of  Huntingdon,  a  man-child  was  born  into 
the  world,  who  five  days  thereafter  in  the  parish  church 
was  christened  "Oliver."  This  happening  excited  no 
interest  beyond  a  narrow  circle  of  village  dames,  and 
yet  its  remoter  results  have  deeply  impressed  the  civili- 


24  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

zation  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Of  the  earlier  years 
of  Cromwell  we  obtain  only  an  occasional  glimpse.  Pos 
sibly,  as  Greene  or  Carlyle  suggests,  he  was  like  most 
English  lads,  fond  of  robbing  birds'  nests  and  raiding 
upon  apple  orchards.  We  believe  it  is  Dickens  who 
mentions  an  interview  between  Cromwell  and  Charles 
I.,  at  the  house  of  Sir  Oliver  Cromwell,  the  uncle 
of  the  future  Protector,  when  they  were  both  mere  lads. 
As  the  story  goes,  young  Oliver  manifested  some  repug 
nance  to  his  Royal  Highness,  and  peremptorily  refused 
to  "pay  his  duty"  to  the  forthcoming  king.  It  is 
spoken  to  the  credit  of  James  I.,  who  was  pres 
ent  at  the  interview,  that  he  commended  the  sturdy 
independence  of  young  Cromwell,  and  reminded  his 
favorite  son  that  the  English  people  all  had  the  same 
pluck  with  his  boyish  playmate.  The  whole  statement 
is  probably  mythical,  and  was  the  after-thought  of  some 
later  narrater. 

When  about  the  age  of  seventeen,  Cromwell  came 
under  the  influence  of  the  Puritan  clergy,  who  were 
wont  to  harangue  the  village  rabble  at  the  foot  of  the 
town  cross.  In  due  time  he  embraced  the  Puritan  the 
ology.  This  was  shortly  followed  by  his  conversion,  a 
phenomenal  event  that  might  be  compared  to  that  of 
John  Bunyan,  the  tinker  of  Elstow.  About  this  time 
he  was  troubled  with  those  hypochondriac  fancies  of 
which  Carlyle  has  preserved  the  account.  Amongst 
other  odd  conceits  was  his  sending  to  the  village  physi 
cian  at  midnight,  fearing  that  he  was  about  to  die.  By 
degrees,  however,  he  emerged  from  this  valley  of  the 


CROMWELL.  25 

shadow  of  death,  so  that  in  his  last  days  he  desired 
neither  refreshment  nor  sleep,  but  was  in  haste  to  be 
gone. 

Whether  wisely  or  not,  Cromwell,  at  an  immature  age, 
espoused  Elizabeth,  the  daughter  of  Sir  James  Bourchier, 
who  proved  a  faithful  helpmate  through  all  the  vicissi 
tudes  of  an  eventful  life.  For  several  years  after  this 
matrimonial  alliance  he  devoted  himself  mainly  to  cattle 
husbandry,  except  that  at  frequent  intervals  he  officiat 
ed  both  in  prayer  and  exhortation  in  the  religious  assem 
blies  of  his  native  town.  But  little  else  is  known  of 
him  during  this  period  beyond  the  fact  that  he  was 
returned  to  the  Parliament  of  1629,  where,  owing  to  his 
"inadequacy  of  speech,"  he  made  no  considerable  fig 
ure.  This  Parliament  was  noted  for  the  "petition  of 
right"  which  Charles  I.  assented  to  after  many 
delays  and  attempted  evasions.  No  sooner,  however, 
was  Parliament  dissolved  than  he  renewed  his  unconsti 
tutional  levies  under  the  names  of  loans  and  benevo 
lences.  It  is  said  that  upon  the  dissolution  of  this  Par 
liament  Cromwell  remarked  in  a  significant  way  to  his 
old  teacher  that  they  did  not  need  him  now,  but  they 
would  want  him  hereafter. 

During  the  parliamentary  interval  of  eleven  years 
which  followed,  Cromwell  removed  to  Cambridgeshire, 
where  he  became  an  expert  in  all  kinds  of  husbandry. 
Meanwhile,  Strafford  had  formulated  a  system  of 
"Thorough,'' a  euphemism  for  continental  despotism. 
To  this  period  belongs  the  story  that  Cromwell,  Hamp- 
den,  Pym,  and  other  commonwealth  celebrities  secured 


26  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

passage  for  New  England,  but  were  stopped  by  a  royal 
order  in  council. 

In  November,  1640,  the  Long  Parliament,  memora 
ble  for  its  political  results,  met  at  Westminster  in 
response  to  the  royal  summons.  In  this  Parliament 
Cromwell  sat  for  Cambridgeshire,  one  of  the  aristocratic 
constituencies  of  the  country.  At  the  beginning  of  this 
session  the  House  consisted  of  men  of  widely  different 
views  in  politics  and  religion.  Were  we  to  classify 
according  to  the  French  method,  we  should  say  there 
was  a  center  and  a  right  and  left  wing.  The  center, 
which  constituted  the  dominant  faction,  was  composed 
of  Presbyterians  and  moderate  Church-men  under  the 
leadership  of  Falkland,  Hyde,  and  Colepepper.  They 
were  supporters  of  reform,  but  opposed  to  all  radical 
changes  in  the  Constitution.  The  right  wing  was  made 
up  of  pronounced  Church-men  and  believers  in  the 
divine  right  of  kingly  rule.  The  left  wing  consisted  of 
Independents,  who  had  little  sympathy  with  monarchy 
or  Episcopacy  They  were  Puritans  in  their  religious 
faith,  and  not  a  few  of  them  Levelers  in  their  political 
views.  This  party,  of  whom  Cromwell  soon  became 
the  acknowledged  head,  was  recruited  in  a  very  small 
degree  from  men  of  gentle  birth,  like  Mampden,  and 
some  of  nobler  lineage,  like  Essex  and  Vane. 

The  parliamentary  majority  addressed  itself  at  once  to 
reformatory  measures  The  Star  Chamber  and  high 
commission  courts,  whose  procedure  was  inquisitorial 
and  at  utter  variance  with  English  tradition  and  senti 
ment,  were  straightway  abolished.  At  the  same  time 


CROMWELL.  27 

the  Parliament  voted  the  imprisonment  of  Laud  and  the 
attainder  and  subsequent  execution  of  Strafford,  whose 
betrayal  of  popular  liberty  could  not  be  condoned  and 
whose  evil  counsel  to  the  King  was  the  cause  of  the 
general  discontent  which  pervaded  the  masses.  These 
extreme  measures  aroused  the  resentment  of  Charles  to 
such  a  degree  that  he  committed  the  most  fatal  blunder 
of  his  reign.  He  demanded  the  surrender  of  Hampden, 
Pym,  and  Hollis,  and  upon  the  refusal  of  the  House  to 
comply  with  this  demand  he  ventured  on  another  step 
that  precipitated  an  armed  conflict.  Followed  by  a  file 
of  soldiers,  he  suddenly  appeared  at  the  door  of  the 
House  of  Commons  for  the  purpose  of  seizing  five 
obnoxious  members  of  that  body.  The  House  for  the 
nonce  behaved  with  a  dignity  like  that  of  the  Roman 
Senate  when  the  Gauls  invaded  that  venerable  forum. 
Charles,  followed  by  his  henchmen,  moved  up  the  main 
aisle  to  the  Speaker's  desk,  and  found  to  his  sore  dis 
comfort  that  the  game  had  flown.  Mortified  and  crest 
fallen,  he  retraced  his  steps  amidst  cries  of  "Privilege! 
Privilege!"  This  grave,  royal  indiscretion  was  as 
decisive  as  Caesar's  passage  of  the  Rubicon.  Hence 
forth  the  ill-starred  monarch  determined  to  stake  his 
political  fortunes  on  the  issue  of  a  plebiscitum  to  be 
rendered  not  by  ballots,  but  by  bullets.  Even  at  that  time 
the  seemingly  inevitable  conflict  might  have  been  pre 
vented  by  a  fusion  of  the  Royalists  and  Presbyterians. 
But  Charles  was  obstinate  and  impracticable,  and  with 
drew  from  his  capitol  only  to  return  a  doomed  and 
defeated  sovereign. 


2C  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

At  this  point  we  drop  the  narrative  and  speak  directly 
to  the  personal  agency  of  Cromwell  in  the  great  affairs 
of  this  commonwealth  era.  The  contest  now  impend 
ing  was  essentially  the  immemorial  fight  between  ple 
beian  and  patrician,  which  began  at  Pharsalia  and  culmi 
nated  amidst  the  disasters  of  Philippi.  On  the  side  of 
the  king  were  found  the  principal  nobility,  the  great 
body  of  the  landed  gentry,  the  clergy  almost  without  a 
single  break,  and  the  two  great  universities,  with  their 
influence.  On  the  side  of  Parliament  were  arrayed  a 
small  minority  of  the  nobility,  a  very  large  majority  of 
the  yeomanry  and  of  the  merchants  and  shop-keepers  of 
the  realm.  Cromwell  was  but  little  past  forty  when  the 
struggle  began  He  was  without  military  training, 
never  having  set  a  squadron  in  the  field,  and  yet  was 
soon  to  develop  into  a  commander  no  whit  inferior  to 
the  greatest  captains  of  ancient  or  modern  times.  In 
the  beginning  so  little  were  his  possibilities  appreciated 
that  he  was  assigned  to  no  higher  position  than  a  cap 
tain  of  dragoons.  At  the  same  time  such  men  as  the 
Earl  of  Essex,  as  great  a  dotard  as  VVurm.ser,  who  con 
fronted  the  young  Napoleon  in  the  campaign  of  Italy, 
were  invested  with  the  chief  command.  It  is  not 
strange,  therefore,  that  for  the  first  two  years  of  the  war, 
the  parliamentary  forces  achieved  no  brilliant  success, 
and  were  even  placed  at  serious  disadvantage  in  the 
northern  and  western  portion  of  the  kingdom.  No  one 
was  more  dissatisfied  with  these  results  than  Cromwell, 
who  attributed  them  to  a  lack  of  inspiration  on  the  part 
of  the  troops. 


CROMWELL.  29 

In  a  conversation  with  his  cousin,  John  Hampden, 
that  genial  and  gallant  English  gentleman,  he  remarked 
that  Parliament  could  not  hope  to  succeed  until  the 
struggle  was  based  on  religion,  and  until  there  was 
greater  thoroughness  of  drill  and  discipline. 

Upon  this  basis  he  organized  his  world-famed  regi 
ment  of  Ironsides,  everyone  of  whom  was  a  freeholder, 
or  the  son  of  a  freeholder.  This  regiment  afterwards 
became  the  model  of  the  whole  army.  The  effects  that 
soon  followed  this  new  military  departure  were  known 
and  read  of  all  men.  Heretofore  Rupert,  the  dashing 
cavalier,  had  been  victorious  upon  almost  every  field  ; 
but  at  Naseby  and  Marston  Moor  Cromwell's  Saints 
clove  them  down  like  so  many  thistles.  The  motives 
of  Cromwell  may  not  have  been  altogether  patriotic 
when  he  suggested  a  self-denying  ordinance  that  speed 
ily  rid  the  army  of  many  incapable  general  officers,  and 
gave  the  control  of  military  affairs  to  men  like  himself, 
such  as  Monk,  Fleetwood,  and  his  own  son-in-law,  Ire- 
ton,  all  of  whom  had  that  desperate  courage  which  char 
acterized  so  many  of  the  English  leaders  from  the  days 
of  Caractacus.  This  remodeling  of  the  army  was  the 
beginning  of  the  downfall  of  the  Royalist  cause.  It  was 
not  long  until  Charles  I.  was  placed  under  mili 
tary  supervision  in  the  Island  of  Ely,  Col.  Hammond, 
a  kinsman  of  Cromwell,  having  charge  of  the  royal  pris 
oner. 

It  is  well  understood  that  at  one  time  pending  the 
conflict  of  arms  there  were  negotiations  between  Crom 
well  and  Charles  that,  if  successful,  would  have  saved 


3O  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

the  king  from  the  scaffold.  These  negotiations  con 
templated  the  making  of  Cromwell  an  Earl  of  Essex,  a 
title  which  some  of  his  ancestors  had  worn.  Whether 
the  scheme  was  defeated  by  Cromwell's  dread  of  the 
king's  treachery  or  his  fear  of  the  Parliament  is  matter 
of  conjecture.  At  any  rate,  the  opportunity  was  lost 
and  the  monarchy  plunged  forward  to  overthrow,  and 
Charles  himself  to  death,  if  not  disgrace. 

The  crisis  was  not  long  delayed.  A  Presbyterian 
majority  of  the  Parliament  had  through  its  commission 
ers  secured  what  was  known  as  the  Newport  treaty  with 
the  king,  which  they  declared  a  proper  basis  of  settle 
ment. 

Cromwell,  who  was  absent  from  London  conducting 
the  siege  of  Pontefract,  being  informed  of  the  state  of 
affairs  at  Westminster,  left  the  siege  in  the  hands  of  a 
subaltern,  and  hurried  to  the  capital.  On  his  arrival  he 
found  things  in  a  bad  way  for  his  party,  and  with  his 
accustomed  vigor  he  set  about  circumventing  the  par 
liamentary  majority.  He  was  not  a  man  for  rose-water 
remedies  when  vast  interests  were  at  stake.  In  this 
emergency  he  resorted  to  a  plan  that  was  thoroughly 
revolutionary.  He  caused  the  trained  bands  of  London 
to  be  discharged  from  the  custody  of  the  king.  At 
day-break  next  morning,  Col.  Rich,  with  his  regiment 
of  cavalry,  was  ranked  in  the  palace  yard  for  the  safe 
keeping  of  his  Majesty.  Col.  Pride,  with  his  regiment 
of  infantry,  was  stationed  at  Westminster  so  as  to  guard 
every  avenue  of  approach  to  the  House  of  Commons. 
Pride  had  instructions  to  exclude  every  member  voting 


CROMWELL.  31 

with  the  Presbyterian  majority.  This  he  did  with  such 
thoroughness  that  the  Parliament  was  reduced  in  num 
ber  to  less  than  one  hundred. 

By  this  direct  method,  more  honest  at  least  than 
Speaker  Reed's  later  method  of  counting  a  quorum,  he 
obtained  a  majority  fully  intent  on  the  subversion  of 
monarchy.  The  Parliament  at  this  time  consisted  of 
less  than  one  hundred  members,  seven-eighths  of  whom 
were  read)'  for  extreme  measures.  A  committee  was 
appointed  to  prepare  a  sort  of  indictment  against  Charles 
Stuart,  the  King  of  England,  setting  forth  that  said 
Charles  was  guilty  of  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors. 

With  the  merest  bit  of  discussion  the  Parliament  or 
dered  a  high  court  of  justice  to  be  organized,  with  Brad- 
shaw  as  President.  This  vehement  tribunal  convened 
in  the  hall  of  William  Rufus,  the  place  of  the  subsequent 
trial  of  Warren  Hastings,  Governor-general  of  India.  In 
this  hall,  according  to  Macaulay,  not  less  than  thirty 
sovereigns  were  crowned  at  different  periods  of  English 
history.  The  king  was  arraigned  in  due  form,  and 
challenged  the  jurisdiction  of  the  court.  Bradshaw 
replied  that  the  court  could  not  allow  its  authority  to  be 
questioned  in  that  way.  After  this  mock  trial  the  deci 
sion  was  announced  condemning  Charles,  the  king,  to 
suffer  death  on  the  3Oth  of  January,  1640  (O.  S.),  in 
front  of  the  palace  of  White  Hall.  Cromwell,  who  had 
been  rarely  present  during  the  investigation,  was  the 
third  to  sign  the  death-warrant  of  the  king.  He  has 
been  greatly  censured  for  failing  to  defeat  the  execution 
of  the  king. 


32  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

In  the  existing  temper  of  the  army  and  Parliament  it 
is  more  than  questionable  whether  his  own  personal 
intervention  could  have  averted  the  blow.  A  majority, 
however,  of  the  more  conservative  citizens  of  the  realm 
remonstrated  against  a  deed  which  they  regarded  as  a 
sacrament  of  blood.  The  United  Provinces  of  the 
Netherlands  protested  against  the  act,  and  the  French 
court  was  equally  emphatic  in  its  condemnation  of  this 
proposed  judicial  murder.  At  the  appointed  time,  how 
ever,  the  3Oth  of  January,  1640,  Charles  I.  was 
beheaded  in  the  presence  of  a  vast  multitude.  His 
royal  demeanor  in  the  presence  of  his  enemies  was  not 
less  dignified  than  that  of  Louis  XVI.  of  France, 
who  in  the  Place  de  la  Revolution  toward  the  close  of 
the  next  century  suffered  the  like  penalty  of  decapita 
tion.  There  was  a  saying  amongst  the  Greeks  that  the 
lightning  sanctifies  what  it  strikes  ;  so,  likewise,  death 
canonizes  its  least  illustrious  victim.  How  much  more 
when  it  strikes  down  one  in  whose  veins  flowed  the 
blood  of  the  Plantagenets  and  the  Tudors.  The  reac 
tion  in  public  sentiment  shook  the  realm  from  Berwick 
on  the  Tweed  to  Land's  End. 

From  that  time  forward  there  could  be  little  enduring 
peace  or  abiding  reconciliation  between  the  contesting 
parties  until  the  restoration  of  the  Stuarts.  Cromwell, 
who  knew  better  than  any  man  of  his  generation  the 
perils  of  the  existing  crisis,  with  as  brave  a  heart  as 
when  he  stood  at  Worcester  and  Marston  Moor, 
addressed  himself  to  the  task  of  reconstruction.  Events, 
however,  were  not  ripe  for  this  reconstructive  move- 


CROMWELL.  33 

ment,  for  at  this  particular  juncture  Presbyterian  Scot 
land  entered  the  list  as  the  champion  of  Charles 
II.  As  a  precautionary  measure,  they  exacted  of 
him  an  oath  to  support  the  solemn  League  and  Cove 
nant,  and  straightway  mobilized  an  army  for  the  inva 
sion  of  England.  During  this  struggle,  which  resulted 
in  the  thorough  subjugation  of  Scotland,  occurred  two 
notable  battles  that  deserve  special  consideration.  This 
brings  us  to  the  era  of  the  battle  of  Dunbar,  which  illus 
trates  better  than  Naseby  or  Marston  Moor  the  superior 
generalship  of  Cromwell.  The  scene  of  the  battle  was 
distant  only  a  few  miles  from  Edinburg.  Leslie  had 
intrenched  his  army  on  the  hill  of  Doon,  confronting 
Cromwell  and  his  troops,  who  by  some  misadventure 
were  shut  up  in  a  cul  de  sac,  from  which  there  seemed 
no  possibility  of  escape.  Leslie,  yielding  to  the  solici 
tations  of  the  lord  commissioners  who  followed  him  in 
his  campaigns,  unexpectedly  left  his  vantage-ground 
and  descended  to  the  foot  of  the  hill.  When  Cromwell 
noticed  this  blunder  of  his  adversary,  he  is  reported  to 
have  said  to  Monk:  "See  how  the  Lord  of  hosts  has 
delivered  them  into  our  hands."  He  resolved  upon 
immediate  attack,  but  was  delayed  by  the  non-arrival  of 
Ireton.  To  be  in  readiness,  however,  he  began  "shag 
ging,"  as  he  quaintly  styled  it,  his  army  toward  the  left. 
In  the  early  twilight  of  the  next  day,  it  being  the  3d  of 
September  according  to  the  calendar,  he  set  the  battle 
in  array,  having  previously  spent  a  half-hour  in  devo 
tional  exercises. 

As  the  sun   rose  over  the  blue   German   ocean    he 


34  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

quoted  the  Psalmist's  expression,  "Let  the  Lord  arise, 
and  let  his  enemies  be  scattered,"  and  the  army,  lifting 
up  their  voices  in  praise  and  invocation  to  the  tune  of 
"Dundee,"  which  they  rolled  high  and  strong  at  the 
foot  of  Doon,  they  went  forward  to  conflict  and  to  sig 
nal  victory.  This  battle  was  alike  typical  and  decisive. 
It  is  hardly  credible  that  the  English  army,  consisting  of 
twelve  thousand  men,  should  ha\e  nearly  destroyed  the 
Scotch  army  of  twenty-odd  thousand  without  sustaining 
a  greater  loss  than  two  or  three  hundred  killed  and 
wounded.  Just  twelve  months  thereafter  the  Scots  ral 
lied  at  Worcester,  where  they  again  encountered  an 
overwhelming  defeat.  It  was  from  the  field  at  Worces 
ter  that  Charles  II.  was  fleeing,  when,  it  is  said,  that  he 
concealed  himself  in  the  branches  of  the  Royal  Oak  while 
a  surly  Roundhead  rode  below  droning  a  Hebrew  psalm. 
The  young  king,  after  divers  hairbreadth  escapes, 
reached  the  Continent,  where  he  remained  until  the 
Restoration. 

These  memorable  military  successes  placed  Cromwell 
in  a  position  that  he  could  safely  take  up  that  plan  of 
reconstruction  which  had  been  delayed  by  the  Scotch 
flank  movement.  The  Parliament,  as  already  intimated, 
had  degenerated  into  a  mere  handlul  of  sniveling  fanat 
ics  and  psalm-singing  hypocrits.  The  whole  country 
was  weary  of  their  legislative  incubation.  Without 
formal  notice,  Cromwell,  with  a  file  of  soldiers,  entered 
the  House  of  Commons  and  dispersed  what  has  been 
very  appropriately  called  the  "Rump  Parliament." 
Having  cleared  the  House  and  locked  the  door,  he  put 


CROMWELL.  35 

the  key  in  his  pocket.  In  the  doing  of  this  he  was 
backed  by  an  overwhelming  sentiment,  both  in  the  army 
and  country.  In  re-adjusting  the  machinery  of  the 
government,  Cromwell  speedily  learned  that  it  was  one 
thing  to  conduct  a  military  campaign  and  quite  another 
to  administer  the  affairs  of  a  great  nation.  As  one  step 
toward  the  accomplishment  of  this  purpose,  he  sum 
moned  a  new  Parliament,  in  which  many  of  the  rotten 
boroughs  of  that  period  were  disfranchised,  and  some 
of  the  larger  cities  which  had  been  hitherto  denied  par 
liamentary  representation  were  admitted  by  their  repre 
sentatives  to  the  great  council  of  the  realm.  In  this  he 
anticipated  the  great  parliamentary  reform  of  1832,  and 
some  others  of  later  date.  With  this  Parliament  he  had 
serious  trouble,  and  it  was  dissolved  after  a  brief  ses 
sion. 

Cromwell  had  now  reached  the  most  critical  juncture 
of  his  public  life.  Indeed,  he  had  many  reasons  to  fear 
a  coalition  between  the  Royalists  and  the  disaffected 
Levelers  of  the  army  for  his  personal  downfall.  To 
forestall  such  a  movement,  he  determined  as  far  as 
practicable  to  restore  the  ancient  forms  and  symbols  of 
the  British  Constitution.  He  resolved  to  summon 
another  Parliament  and  to  reconstruct  the  House  of 
Peers  as  a  concession  to  the  nobility,  and  even  to  the 
middle  classes,  who  had  become  weary  of  the  religious 
dogmas  and  the  political  methods  of  Puritanism. 
Accordingly,  he  invited  the  leading  noblemen  to  seats 
in  the  Upper  House,  and,  still  further  to  strenghten  his 
position,  he  created  a  number  of  new  peers  who  were 


36  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

entitled  to  no  such  distinction  whether  on  the  score  of 
birth  or  blood.  A  majority  of  them  were  plebeians  who 
were  brought  to  the  surface  by  their  military  services  in 
the  field.  The  scheme  proved  abortive,  because  the  old 
families  were  unwilling  to  sit  with  these  parvenues,  and 
the  House  of  Commons  itself  strongly  refused  to  recog 
nize  these  butchers  and  shop-keepers  as  part  of  the 
ancient  peerage  of  the  realm.  The  Commons,  however, 
tempted  him  by  the  offer  of  the  kingly  title.  He  toyed 
for  a  season  with  the  seductive  bait,  and  then  accepted 
the  less  odious  title  of  Lord  Protector.  Henceforth  he 
administered  affairs  in  a  way  such  as  no  English  sover 
eign  had  attempted  since  the  reign  of  that  royal  Blue 
beard,  Henry  VIII.  He  organized  England  into  twelve 
military  districts  under  the  control  of  an  equal  number 
of  Major-generals,  who  were  directly  responsible  to  him 
self.  In  the  same  despotic  spirit  he  appointed  eccle 
siastical  "  triers, "' who  were  as  intolerant  and  prescrip 
tive  as  the  High  Commission  Court  under  the  manage 
ment  of  Laud  and  his  minions.  It  is  the  veriest  non 
sense  to  condone  these  flagrant  wrongs  on  the  ground 
that  these  prelatists  and  papists  were  political  factions 
rather  than  religious  sects.  It  is  the  merest  logical 
make-shift  to  reply  that  Cromwell  granted  special 
exemptions  to  the  Jews  whilst  he  punished  the  reading 
of  the  liturgy  or  the  saying  of  a  mass  with  imprison 
ment  and  confiscation.  His  Puritan  defenders  never 
weary  of  telling  us  of  his  sturdy  championship  of  Prot 
estantism  on  the  Continent.  Milton,  his  Latin  Secre 
tary,  in  his  sonnets,  reminds  us  of  how  he  demanded 


CROMWELL.  37 

freedom  of  worship  for  the  Piedmontise,  and  Carlyle 
tells  us  of  how  he  threatened  that  the  English  guns 
should  be  heard  in  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo  if  the  Vau- 
dois  were  molested  in  their  simple  worship  Let  all 
this  and  even  more  be  allowed,  yet  it  remains  histori 
cally  true  that  in  the  name  of  liberty  he  confiscated  the 
property  of  the  Establishment,  robbed  the  clergy  of 
their  livings,  and  without  the  color  of  law  ejected  hun 
dreds  of  Presbyterians  from  their  parishes.  It  is  safe  to 
assert  that  in  the  closing  years  of  the  protectorate  he 
was  chargeable  with  grosser  infringements  on  constitu 
tional  law  than  was  Charles  I.,  whom  he  himself 
rated  guilty  of  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors.  Like 
Disraeli,  of  the  present  century,  Cromwell  sought  to 
atone  for  the  sins  and  short-comings  of  his  home  admin 
istration  by  the  brilliancy  of  his  foreign  policy.  He  it 
was  who  secured  Dunkirk  as  some  compensation  for 
the  loss  of  Calias  and  by  his  admirals  despoiled  Spain 
of  some  of  her  best  colonial  possessions.  As  the  ally 
of  Lewis  XIV  ,  his  soldiery  were  esteemed  the  best 
fighting  troops  of  Europe,  and  everywhere  throughout 
the  Continent  the  name  of  Cromwell  were  a  terror  to 
those  who  would  oppose  the  Protestant  cause.  It  is 
not  strange,  therefore,  that  the  character  and  career  of 
Cromwell  has  been  a  perplexity  to  the  historian. 
Hume  stigmatizes  him  as  "a  canting  hypocrit."  Fors- 
ter,  in  his  "Statesmen  of  the  British  Commonwealth," 
alleges  that  he  was  "wanting  in  truth."  On  the  other 
hand,  Macaulay  applauds  him  to  the  echo,  and  Carlyle 
styles  him  "the  most  English  of  Englishmen." 


443311 


38  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

There  is  a  measure  of  truth  in  these  different  charac 
terizations,  and  the  verdict  of  the  ages  will  be  that  he 
was  essentially  a  bundle  of  inconsistencies,  if  not  down 
right  contradictions.  "In  every  death-chamber  there  is 
the  fifth  act  of  a  tragedy."  This  generalization  is  strik 
ingly  true  of  the  last  hours  of  the  great  Lord  Protector. 
For  years  his  health  had  been  failing,  especially  from 
the  period  of  his  arduous  Irish  campaign  and  the  death 
of  his  favorite  daughter,  Elizabeth.  Some  have  sup 
posed  that  mortified  vanity  had  been  at  work  to  under 
mine  his  originally  vigorous  constitution.  He  had 
cherished  the  hope  that  he  might  be  the  founder  of  a 
kingly  dynasty,  or  else  the  head  of  a  European  Protest 
ant  alliance.  These  lofty  aims  were  largely  frustrated. 

In  the  summer  of  1658,  he  was  prostrated  by  an  incur 
able  disease.  His  days,  indeed,  were  numbered.  There 
was  in  the  manner  of  Cromwell's  death  more  than  a  sem 
blance  of  poetic  justice.  It  occurred  on  the  3d  of  Sep 
tember,  1658,  the  anniversary  of  the  Scots'  defeat  at 
Dunbar,  and  also  of  what  he  esteemed  his  "crowning 
mercy,"  the  decisive  battle  of  Worcester.  In  front  of 
the  royal  palace  of  White  Hall,  where  he  lay  dying,  had 
been  exhibited  nine  years  agone  that  most  tragical 
pageant,  the  judicial  murder  of  Charles  I.,  the 
purest  sovereign  of  the  Stuart  dynasty.  Almost  in  the 
midst  of  his  death-agony,  a  strong  wind  tempest  swept 
over  the  sea  and  shook  even  the  dry  land.  Weird 
lightning  flashes,  followed  by  crashing  thunder  peals, 
added  to  the  terrible  sublimity  of  the  scene.  This  wild 
war  of  the  elements  without  symbolized  the  fiercer  con- 


CROMWELL.  39 

flict  which  raged  in  the  breast  of  the  Lord  Protector. 
For  months  and  years  he  had  moved  about  in  hourly 
apprehension  of  assassination.  Now  that  the  end  was 
nigh  there  was  the  absence  of  that  imperial  repose  with 
which  Caesar  confronted  the  daggers  of  conspiracy. 
Nor  was  there  the  slightest  token  of  that  exhilaration 
of  soul  which  the  great  Napoleon  felt  when,  from  his 
dying  couch  at  Longwood,  he  seemed  to  watch  the 
heady  surges  of  some  new  Leipsic  or  Austerlitz,  and 
with  his  parting  breath  shouted  with  the  old  time 
emphasis:  "Tete  d'  atmee !"  On  the  contrary,  the 
vultures  of  remorse  were  preying  on  his  vitals.  In  this 
supreme  hour  of  his  destiny  his  single  solace  was  found 
in  the  Puritan  dogma:  "Once  in  grace  always  in 
grace.1'  A  few  spasmodic  contortions  of  the  face,  and 
the  once  mailed  hand  was  still  and  stark  in  death,  and 
the  eagle  eye  that  had  so  often  flashed  in  the  forefront 
of  the  charging  squadrons  was  quenched  in  the  black 
ness  of  darkness  forever. 

Whatever  may  be  our  estimate  of  Cromwell's  states 
manship,  there  can  be  no  room  for  disagreement  as  to 
the  political  consequences  of  his  death.  Beyond  con 
troversy  that  death  was  the  downfall  of  Puritanism  in 
all  its  branches.  He  was  its  brain  and  its  muscle,  its 
blood  and  its  bones.  True,  he  had  provided  with  much 
painstaking  for  the  succession  of  his  son  Richard.  But 
between  sire  and  son  there  was  a  broader  disparity  than 
between  Solomon  and  Rehoboam.  Richard,  a  well- 
mannered  gentleman,  was  a  sovereign  oi  the  Merovin 
gian  type,  ill-adapted  to  the  existing  emergency.  His 


4<D  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

resignation  was  itself  compulsory.  The  interregnum 
that  followed  was  marked  by  the  disgraceful  rivalry  of 
such  military  pretenders  as  Lambert  and  Desborough. 
Even  the  Rump  Parliament  once  more  resumed  its  sit 
tings,  claiming  to  be  the  representative  of  the  nation. 
So  great  and  so  imminent  was  the  national  peril  that 
many  of  the  Roundheads  themselves  were  ready  for 
revolt. 

At  this  juncture  Gen.  Monk,  who  with  strict  impar 
tiality  had  fought  for  both  king  and  Parliament,  became 
the  man  of  destiny,  Guy  Warwick  of  the  hour.  Sup 
ported  by  a  well  disciplined  army,  he  at  once  entered 
into  negotiations  with  the  cavaliers  at  home  and  abroad. 
The  restoration  of  the  Stuarts  was  decreed,  and  the 
national  welfare  demanded  that  it  be  done  quickly. 

Nothing  can  give  us  a  clearer  idea  of  the  irremediable 
failure  of  Puritanism  than  the  stirring  events  of  the  next 
few  months.  When  William  of  Orange  landed  at  Tor- 
bay,  he  was  disheartened  by  the  want  of  enthusiasm,  or 
rather  the  stolid  indifference  that  marked  his  reception. 
Yet  he  came  on  the  urgent  invitation  of  the  Convention 
of  Westminster,  to  occupy  a  throne  made  vacant  by 
abdication. 

How  strikingly  different  the  ovation  of  Charles  II. ! 
The  booming  of  guns  and  the  blazing  of  bonfires 
announced  the  joy  of  the  nation  that  they  were  at  last  free 
from  a  curse  and  a  pestilence — that  sansculottism  in  poli 
tics  and  Jack  Cadeism  in  literature  were  thrice  dead — 
plucked  up  by  the  roots  and  buried.  Nor  does  it 
weaken  our  conclusion  that  this  right  royal  welcome 


CROMWELL  41 

was  extended  not  to  a  wise  and  virtuous  prince,  who 
had  been  defrauded  of  his  birthright,  but  to  a  debauchee, 
who  afterward  converted  the  palace  into  a  brothel,  and 
basely  consented  to  become  a  stipendiary  of  the  French 
crown.  For  all  this  licentiousness  in  private  life,  for  all 
the  cabal  and  corruption  in  official  station,  Puritanism 
is  justly  responsible  at  the  bar  of  history.  Such  a  reac 
tion,  ethical  and  political,  was  inevitable,  nor  is  it  to  be 
wondered  at  that  it  transcended  all  sober  limits.  The 
nation  had  sown  the  wind,  and  must  needs  reap  the 
whirlwind. 

For  long  years  there  was  on  every  side  confusion  and 
bewilderment  as  when  one  is  suddenly  aroused  from 
some  terrible  dream.  Nor  did  the  reaction  exhaust 
itself  with  the  enthronement  of  William  and  Mary. 
There  were  still  outcroppings  of  party  spleen  and  some 
what  disastrous  continental  wars  until  the  Peace  of 
Ryswick,  in  September,  1697.  From  that  date  for 
ward  the  English  royal  succession  has  never  been  for  a 
moment  interrupted,  nor,  indeed,  at  any  time  seriously 
menaced,  either  by  foreign  levy  or  domestic  treason. 

It  will  be  observed  that  in  this  statement  we  take  no 
account  of  the  Scotch  rebellions  of  1715  and  1745,  or 
the  fabulous  adventures  of  Chevalier  St.  George  in  the 
heart  of  London. 

These  abortive  attempts  and  mysterious  plottings 
were  of  less  significance  than  the  No  Popery  riots  and 
Chartist  demonstrations  of  more  recent  times.  From 
the  era  of  the  restored  monarchy  the  British  dominion 
has  widened  with  the  processes  of  the  sun  until  it  has 


42  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

reached  the  proportions  of  the  grandest  imperialism  of 
the  world's  history. 

The  England  of  to-day  is  the  workshop  of  the  nations, 
the  entrepot  of  a  commerce  whose  sales  whiten  every 
ocean,  the  seat  of  a  military  power  whose  "morning 
drum  beat"  is  more  than  a  sentiment  or  a  sensation  ; 
and,  what  is  best  of  all,  the  head  of  a  Christian  civiliza 
tion  that  is  destined  to  overspread  the  whole  earth. 


JAMESTOWN    AND    PLYMOUTH    ROCK.  43 


JAMESTOWN  AND  PLYMOUTH  ROCK, 


THE  average  American  statesman  has  been  slow  to 
apprehend,  or  else  strangely  reluctant  to  acknowledge 
the  existence  of  two  widely  divergent  civilizations  on 
this  continent.  Our  national  coat  of  arms  is  emblazoned 
by  the  legend,  E  Pluribus  Unum,  but  the  stupid  conceit 
is  flatly  contradicted  by  almost  every  page  of  our 
national  history.  Never,  except  in  the  presence  of  a 
common  peril,  or  under  the  pressure  of  a  common 
necessity,  has  there  been  more  than  the  faintest  sem 
blance  of  national  unity.  And  no  sooner  was  the  exter 
nal  pressure  withdrawn  than  the  old  antagonisms  were 
revived.  In  the  laboratory  of  the  chemist  there  is  a 
recognized  difference  between  a  mechanical  mixture  as 
of  water  and  alcohol,  and  a  chemical  combination  as  of 
an  acid  with  a  metallic  base.  The  one  is  the  result  of 
a  well-defined  law  of  affinity;  the  other  is  the  product 
of  physical  contact  and  commingling.  This  serves  to 
illustrate  what  we  mean  when  we  assert  that  strict 
national  unity  has  never  been  realized  in  all  the  years 
of  our  past  political  history. 

It  was  in  somewise  formulated  in  the  Articles  of 
Confederation  adopted  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  the 
revolutionary  period.  It  was  afterwards  rendered  more 
compact  in  the  Federal  Constitution  of  1787,  which,  as 


44  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

John  Quincy  Adams  alleged,  was  "wrung  from  the 
necessities  of  a  reluctant  people."  It  is  symbolized  in 
the  starry  ensign  of  the  Republic,  but  as  for  a  veritable 
hand  and  heart  union  it  is  utterly  unhistorical.  Apart 
from  this  truth,  the  party  contests  of  the  last  hundred 
years  have  been  a  selfish  scramble  for  official  spoils,  and 
the  late  war  between  the  States  is  stripped  of  its  heroic 
aspects,  and  was  the  naked  outcome  of  savage  blood- 
thirstiness.  In  the  earliest  Colonial  records,  as  well  as 
in  the  latest  phases  of  representative  journalism,  these 
conflicting  types  of  Cavalier  and  Puritan  civilization 
may  be  readily  recognized.  They  not  only  survived  the 
seven  years'  struggle  with  Great  Britain,  but  they  have 
outlived  the  modern  era  of  reconstruction.  It  is  a 
palpable  blunder  to  suppose  that  the  abolition  of 
slavery,  still  less  the  enfranchisement  of  the  freedman, 
has  contributed  in  any  degree  to  the  unification  of  these 
diverse  civilizations.  On  the  contrary,  these  events, 
and  others  of  like  sort,  have  widened  the  gulf  of  separa 
tion.  The  traditions  of  a  common  struggle  for  inde 
pendence  have  been  well-nigh  obliterated  by  the  later 
asperities  of  sectional  conflict.  Henceforth,  Independ 
ence  Day  has  as  little  political  significance  in  democratic 
America  as  the  anniversary  of  the  Gunpowder  Plot  in 
Protestant  England.  The  4th  of  July,  alike  with  the 
5th  of  November,  has  for  all  practical  uses  been  ex 
punged  from  the  calendar.  It  is  the  part  of  wise  states 
manship  to  accept  these  facts  and  to  mold  the  national 
policy  in  accordance  therewith.  The  great  problem  of 
our  government  is  not  to  destroy  either  of  the  constit- 


JAMESTOWN    AND    PLYMOUTH    ROCK.  45 

uent  elements  of  our  American  civilization,  but  to  co 
ordinate  them  in  such  a  spirit  of  concession  and  compro 
mise  that  the  blessings  of  civil  and  religious  liberty  may 
be  transmitted  to  all  generations. 

SKETCH    OF    CROMWELL    AND    HIS    TIMES. 

In  the  foregoing  chapter,  we  considered,  with  some 
fullness  of  detail,  and  we  trust  with  judicial  fairness,  the 
chequered  fortunes  of  Puritan  and  Cavalier  through 
more  than  a  century  of  conflict  on  English  soil.  We 
witnessed  the  rise  and  downfall  of  Puritanism  as  a  polit 
ical  and  religious  faction.  There  is  probably  a  measure 
of  truth  in  what  Macaulay  suggests,  that  the  same  con 
test  has  been  continued  under  other  party  names  down 
to  our  own  times.  So  that  the  recent  overthrow  of  the 
Gladstone  ministry  has  a  vital  relation  to  the  political 
controversies  of  the  i/th  century.  But  we  are  not  care 
ful  to  analyze  or  elaborate  this  statement.  We  prefer 
to  turn  away  from  these  old  world  struggles  and  to  dis 
cuss  the  more  interesting  conflict  of  these  civilizations 
in  our  Western  Hemisphere.  The  planting  of  the 
Jamestown  colony  was  the  earliest  permanent  English 
settlement  on  the  Continent.  The  spirit  of  commercial 
adventure  had  mainly  to  do  with  this  enterprise.  There 
is  but  the  merest  modicum  of  truth  in  the  statement  of 
Northern  historians  that  the  colony  was,  in  the  begin 
ning,  composed  of  decayed  gentlemen  and  bankrupt 
traders.  The  leader  of  the  enterprise  and  the  first  gov 
ernor  of  the  colony,  Capt.  John  Smith,  was  of  highly 
respectable  descent,  and  a  scholar  and  writer  of  no  little 


46  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

distinction.  Like  many  a  knightly  spirit  of  that  age, 
he  was  a  soldier  of  fortune.  He  greatly  distinguished 
himself  in  the  war  against  the  infidel  Turks,  who  were 
menacing  the  Christian  civilization  of  the  West.  His 
nautical  skill  and  his  administrative  ability  were  inval 
uable  to  the  infant  colony  of  Virginia,  and  because  of 
his  admirable  qualifications  for  leadership,  he  was  after 
wards  chosen  by  the  Puritans  as  the  Admiral  of  New 
England. 

A  majority  of  those  who  accompanied  Smith  to  Vir 
ginia  were,  like  himself,  of  gentle  birth,  so  that  there 
was  from  the  outset  a  predominant  element  of  cavalier- 
ism  in  the  Jamestown  colony.  Some  years  subsequent, 
the  adventurous  Mayflower  set  forth  from  Delft  Haven, 
in  Holland,  with  its  human  cargo  of  one  hundred  and 
odd  souls,  to  find  a  resting  place  in  the  new  world. 
They  had  fled  from  England  to  escape  the  hardships 
and  disabilities  imposed  on  them  by  the  English  estab 
lishment.  For  a  few  years  they  had  sojourned  at  Ley- 
den,  but  a  nomadic  freak  impelled  them  to  a  fresh 
adventure.  Their  objective  point  was  the  mouth  of  the 
Hudson  river.  Owing,  however,  to  contrary  winds, 
and  possibly  to  a  nautical  blunder,  they  were  drifted  or 
driven  to  a  higher  latitude.  In  December,  1620,  they 
disembarked  at  Plymouth  Rock  in  the  face  of  hostile 
savages  and  in  the  midst  of  a  climate  only  less  inhospi 
table  than  the  coasts  of  Labrador.  In  numbers  and 
equipment  they  were  a  feeble  colony.  The  rigorous 
winter,  coupled  with  the  want  of  physical  comforts, 
occasioned  a  very  great  mortality  during  the  first  few 


JAMESTOWN    AND    PLYMOUTH    ROCK.  47 

months  of  their  settlement.  Matthew  Arnold  has,  in  a 
recent  publication,  spoken  jeeringly  of  the  ignorance 
and  coarseness  of  these  Pilgrim  Fathers.  We  shall 
hardly  be  accused  of  undue  partiality  towards  them. 
But  we  confess  to  a  feeling  of  admiration  for  men  who 
were  moved  to  brave  the  perils  of  the  sea  and  to  con 
front  the  privations  of  the  wilderness,  not  for  gain,  but 
godliness.  They  were,  indeed,  illiterate  and  intensely 
narrow,  but  they  were  sincere  and  courageous.  Nor 
can  it  be  denied  that  in  that  meanly-clad  and  shivering 
congregation  there  was  lodged  the  germ  of  a  culture  and 
a  civilization  which,  with  all  its  faults,  has,  in  the  person 
of  some  of  its  representative  men,  shed  imperishable 
lustre  on  American  literature  and  statesmanship.  These 
earliest  immigrants  would  have  inevitably  succumbed  to 
climatic  conditions  and  Indian  depredations  but  for 
occasional  reinforcements  of  men  and  supplies,  both 
from  England  and  Holland. 

Meanwhile,  the  struggle  for  existence  developed  a 
toughness  of  physical  and  intellectual  fibre  which  has 
been  of  material  service  to  their  descendants.  The 
timely  arrival  of  Endicott  at  Salem,  and  the  opportune 
coming  of  Winthrop  at  Charlestown,  greatly  strength 
ened  the  colony.  In  point  of  wealth  and  refinement, 
these  later  immigrants  were  vastly  superior  to  their  co 
religionists  of  Plymouth.  They  soon  acquired  a  polit 
ical  ascendency  which  they  have  practically  maintained 
until  the  present  hour.  These  two  colonies,  Virginia 
and  Massachusetts,  were  the  geographical  centers  of  the 
two  civilizations  that  have  dominated  the  religion,  liter- 


48  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

ature  and  politics  of  the  nation  for  the  last  hundred 
years.  These  mother  colonies  were  antipodal,  however, 
in  the  matter  and  style  of  their  civilization. 

We  shall  content  ourself  with  barely  suggesting  these 
points  of  difference,  thereby  avoiding  needless  detail  and 
amplification.  They  differed  widely  in  their  theology 
and  forms  of  worship.  The  Puritans  in  both  hemis 
pheres  accepted  the  Genevan  theology  with  but  the 
slightest  admixture  of  what  was  styled  at  a  later  date 
Arminianism.  With  them  divine  sovereignty,  with  its 
corelated  dogmas,  as  inculcated  in  the  writings  of  St. 
Augustine,  was  the  corner  stone  truth  of  the  Christian 
system.  The  latter  day  modifications  of  Andover  and 
Yale  would  have  found  little  favor  with  the  Mathers  and 
Edwardses  of  a  former  generation.  In  church  polity 
they  were  Congregationalists,  regarding  each  body  of 
faithful  men  and  women  as  a  distinct  unit  in  the  king 
dom  of  God.  As  to  forms  of  worship,  they  affected 
great  simplicity.  Their  church  architecture  was  rude 
and  unsightly;  their  psalmody  was  the  doggerel  of 
Sternhold  and  Hopkins'  version  of  the  Psalter,  and  they 
were  fiercely  intolerant  of  anything  that  savored  of  a 
liturgical  service.  They  incorporated  as  far  as  practi 
cable  a  theocratic  element  in  their  civil  economy. 
Warm  advocates  in  theory  of  universal  suffrage,  they 
made  church  membership  a  condition  of  the  elective 
franchise.  While  they  sought  in  exile  freedom  to  wor 
ship  God,  they  were  sternly  bent  on  a  monopoly  of  this 
priceless  privilege.  Heresy  in  doctrine  or  worldliness 
of  deportment  was  a  species  of  treason  against  the  godly 


JAMESTOWN  AND  PLYMOUTH  ROCK.         49 

commonwealth  that  needed  to  be  restrained  and  pun 
ished  by  the  civil  magistrate.  Not  only  the  ignorant 
masses,  but  their  educated  leaders  were  superstitious 
and  cruel  to  a  degree  scarcely  credible.  The  death  pen 
alty  even  was  inflicted  in  some  instances  with  unsparing 
severity  on  witches,  Quakers,  Catholics  and  Baptists. 
It  was  as  though  the  shadow  had  gone  back  on  the  dial 
of  Ahaz  and  professedly  Christian  men  had  relapsed 
into  the  barbarism  of  the  twelfth  century.  Like  their 
fellow-fanatics,  the  Roundheads  of  England,  they  were 
ascetics  of  the  worst  type.  With  them  life  was  not  only 
real,  but  it  was  sternly  serious  and  even  morose.  The 
Sabbath  was  a  fast  to  be  observed  with  Jewish  strict 
ness — a  day  to  be  devoted  to  sermons,  and  catechisms, 
and  devout  meditation.  The  blue  laws  of  Connecticut 
reflect  the  pious  sentiment  of  the  times,  and  while  they 
are  in  part  apocryphal,  they  certainly  embody  the  tra 
ditional  convictions  of  the  Puritan  fathers. 

It  need  hardly  be  said  that  they  were  in  full  sympa 
thy  with  the  popular  movement  in  England.  They 
were  jubilant  at  the  victories  of  Cromwell,  and  shouted 
Te  Deum  when  Charles  I.  was  executed.  They  were 
in  good  favor  with  the  Lord  Protector,  and  greatly 
bewailed  his  death.  When  the  day  of  reckoning  and 
retribution  came  to  the  popular  leaders  of  England,  they 
gladly  afforded  sanctuary  to  five  of  the  regicides. 

In  all  of  these  respects  the  Cavalier  colony  was  the 
exact  opposite.  As  regards  religion,  they  were  devoted 
adherents  of  the  Church  of  England.  While  Massachu 
setts  divided  its  territory  into  school  townships,  Vir- 


5<D  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

ginia  distributed  her  territory  into  parishes,  and  the 
book  of  common  prayer  was  ordered  to  be  used  in  all 
religious  assemblies.  Their  churches  were  fashioned 
after  English  models,  and  many  of  the  private  residences 
of  the  wealthier  planters  closely  resembled  the  manor 
houses  of  the  English  gentry.  Their  homes  were  the 
centers  of  a  hospitality  that  became  proverbial  for  its 
elegance  and  bountifulness.  Nor  were  they  forgetful 
of  literature  and  the  fine  arts.  Their  homes  were  fur 
nished  with  libraries  and  decorated  with  statuary  and 
paintings  imported  from  Europe.  During  the  Colonial 
period,  and  afterwards,  many  of  the  elder  sons  of  these 
rich  planters  were  educated  at  the  best  universities  of 
Europe.  In  politics  they  were  admirers  of  the  British 
Constitution  with  its  three  estates  of  king,  lords  and 
commons.  The  common  law,  with  its  law  of  primo 
geniture,  and  the  feudal  system  of  entails,  so  favorable 
to  the  accumulation  of  large  landed  estates,  was  part  of 
its  jurisprudence  for  nearly  two  centuries.  Instead  of 
manhood  suffrage  they  established  freehold  suffrage. 

They  were  in  hearty  accord  with  the  Cavaliers  during 
the  commonwealth  era,  and  after  the  overthrow  of  the 
monarchy  Virginia  was  the  asylum  of  hundreds  of  the 
persecuted  Royalists.  Two  years  before  the  restoration 
Richard  Lee  visited  Charles  II.  at  Breda,  and  tendered 
him  the  fealty  of  his  Virginia  subjects.  Indeed,  Sir 
William  Berkley,  the  Governor  of  the  colony,  caused 
Charles  II.  to  be  proclaimed  king  of  England,  Scotland, 
Ireland,  France  and  Virginia,  when  as  yet  he  was  a 
homeless  fugitive.  These  treasonable  doings  of  the 


JAMESTOWN    AND    PLYMOUTH    ROCK.  51 

Virginia  Cavaliers  did  not  escape  the  vigilant  eye  of 
Cromwell.  He  deemed  it  a  matter  sufficiently  gra\v  to 
warrant  him  in  dispatching  a  war  ship  to  reduce  the 
rebellious  colony.  That  veteran  Cavalier,  Sir  William 
Berkley,  organized  a  body  of  troops  to  resist  the  Lord 
Protector.  Fortunate1,;/  for  the  interests  of  all  con 
cerned,  an  honorable  settlement  was  obtained,  Virginia 
securing  for  herself  the  right  of  self-taxation,  and  also 
exemption  from  commercial  burdens  imposed  on  some 
of  the  other  colonies.  It  is  noteworthy  that  Virginia 
was  the  last  to  succumb  to  Puritan  ascendency,  and  the 
first  to  challenge  the  military  authority  of  the  English 
government.  For  the  next  hundred  years  the  prosper 
ity  of  Virginia  was  phenomenal.  Her  resources  were 
enlarged  in  all  directions.  Especially  was  she  benefited 
by  the  influx  of  an  educated  and  enterprising  Scotch- 
Irish  population,  who  settled  west  of  the  Blue  Ridge. 
These  Valley  Virginians  were  descendants  of  the  men 
whose  obstinate  valor  at  the  siege  of  Londonderry  has 
made  their  memory  immortal.  At  first  there  was  a  bit 
ter  rivalry  between  these  Cohees,  as  they  were  called, 
and  the  Tuckahoes,  who  inhabited  the  tide-water  dis 
trict.  Commercial  intercourse  and  frequent  intermar 
riage  gradually  removed  their  mutual  prejudice.  During 
the  French  and  Indian  wars  and  the  Revolutionary 
struggle,  they  were  more  thoroughly  united,  but  their 
political  affiliation  was  never  complete.  Stonewall  Jack 
son  was  a  fair  representative  of  the  Valley  Virginians, 
while  Robert  E.  Lee  was*' a  Cavalier  of  the  Cavaliers." 
Massachusetts  and  Virginia,  although  differing  on 


52  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

many  questions  during  the  Colonial  period,  v.  ere  both 
jealous  of  either  royal  or  parliamentary  encroachments 
on  their  chartered  rights. 

When,  therefore,  the  Tory  ministry  of  George  III. 
inaugurated  their  scheme  of  taxation  without  represen 
tation,  they  were  united  in  opposition  to  the  project. 
As  early  as  1765,  the  Virginia  House  Burgesses  de 
nounced  the  Stamp  Act  as  unconstitutional  and  oppres 
sive.  At  a  later  period  they  made  common  cause  with 
Puritan  Massachusetts  against  the  Boston  Port  bill,  and 
shipped  supplies  to  their  famishing  compatriots.  To 
Patrick  Henry  besides,  beyond  all  men,  belongs  the 
credit  of  starting  the  ball  of  the  revolution.  No  man, 
indeed,  did  more  to  arouse  the  colonists  to  a  just  sense 
of  the  impending  danger. 

When  the  military  contest  began  with  a  chance  col 
lision  at  Lexington,  the  Colonies  soon  became  solid. 
As  yet.  however,  there  were  few  that  contemplated  a 
permanent  separation  from  the  mother  country,  in  the 
Colonial  Congress,  Richard  Henry  Lee,  of  Virginia, 
whose  Norman  blood  was  indisputable,  moved  for  the 
appointment  of  a  committee  to  draft  a  Declaration  of 
Independence.  The  motion  prevailed,  the  declaration 
was  prepared  by  Thomas  Jefferson,  submitted  to  Con 
gress  and  unanimously  adopted.  It  was  at  the  sugges 
tion  of  Virginia  that  the  Articles  of  Confederation  were 
adopted.  This  was  a  league  between  sovereign  States, 
and  while  it  was  hardly  adequate  for  the  purposes  of 
the  war,  it  proved  utterly  insufficient  after  the  treaty  of 
Versailles.  Many  of  the  States  failed  to  pay  their  quota 


JAMESTOWN    AND    PLYMOUTH    ROCK.  53 

towards  the  support  of  the  Confederation.  At  times  it 
was  so  nearly  bankrupt  that  its  treasury  was  barely  able 
to  purchase  stationery  and  defray  the  clerk  hire.  As 
stated  in  the  outset,  external  pressure  withdrawn,  there 
was  shown  an  utter  lack  of  political  affinity.  Anarchy, 
or  a  group  of  feeble  and  independent  republics,  it 
seemed,  were  the  dreadful  alternatives.  Moreover,  the 
commercial  regulations  of  the  different  States  were  so 
variant  that  they  were  a  source  of  perpetual  discord. 
At  this  juncture  Virginia  proposed  a  convention  of  all 
the  States,  to  be  held  at  Annapolis,  Maryland,  which 
should  take  all  these  matters  relating  to  commerce 
under  advisement.  So  little  interest  was  felt  in  the 
question  that  only  four  States  were  represented.  This 
convention  of  delegates  asked  for  an  enlargement  of 
their  powers,  and  adjourned  to  meet  at  Philadelphia  in 
May,  1787.  Over  this  memorable  body  George  Wash 
ington  presided.  The  session  was  prolonged  through 
wearisome  months  of  debate,  and  there  were  times 
when  the  most  hopeful  despaired  of  any  satisfactory 
result.  Luther  Martin  tells  us  that  there  were  no  less 
than  three  parties  in  the  convention  whose  differences 
were  radical  and  apparently  irreconcilable.  The  Con 
stitution,  as  reported  to  and  finally  accepted  by  the 
thirteen  original  States,  was  the  result  of  a  series  of 
compromises.  When  submitted  to  the  several  State 
conventions,  it  met  with  fierce  opposition.  For  some- 
while  North  Carolina  and  Rhode  Island  withheld  their 
ratification,  and  so  little  desire  was  felt  for  wh  it  the  pre 
amble  styled  "a  more  perfect  union,"  that  the  leading 


54  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

States  of  Virginia,  New  York  and  Massachusetts  adopted 
it  by  beggarly  majorities.  Not  a  few  of  our  most  illus 
trious  patriots  and  statesmen  were  dissatisfied  in  a 
greater  or  less  degree  with  the  work  of  the  convention. 
Hamilton  himself  was  not  without  painful  misgivings. 
Patrick  Henry  did  not  scruple  to  stigmatize  the  Consti 
tution  as  dangerous  to  public  liberty.  Mr.  Jefferson, 
who  was  absent  in  Europe  during  these  heated  discus 
sions,  was  known  to  be  ill-affected  towards  the  proposed 
change.  Viewed  in  the  clear  light  ot  subsequent  his 
tory,  some  of  these  men  seemed  to  be  endowed  with 
the  spirit  of  political  prophecy,  not  less  so,  indeed,  than 
Edmund  Burke  when  he  wrote  his  "  Reflections  on  the 
French  Revolution." 

They  seemed  to  have  an  open  vision  of  the  rivalry 
between  the  hostile  sections  foreboding  anarchy.  On 
the  other  hand  no  small  number  feared  the  gradual 
usurpation  of  the  reserved  rights  of  the  States  by  the 
Central  government  with  an  alarming  tendency  towards 
imperialism.  They  predicted  the  rise  of  a  national  party 
that  would  seek  to  obtain  by  artful  construction  what 
was  wanting  in  specific  grant.  Nor  did  these  far  sighted 
statesmen  fail  to  see  the  probability,  if  not  moral  cer 
tainty,  of  a  struggle  between  individual  States  and  the 
Federal  government,  resulting  in  such  deadly  strife  as 
for  four  years  drenched  the  continent  with  fraternal 
blood.  As  more  than  once  already  intimated,  the  Con 
stitution  was  at  last  ratified  under  a  sort  of  constraint, 
and  not  without  a  significant  if  silent  protest.  This 
language  will  not  be  adjudged  too  strong  by  those  who 


JAMESTOWN    AND    PLYMOUTH    ROCK.  55 

are  familiar  with  the  situation  of  that  transition  period. 
There  was  reluctant  acquiescence  rather  than  hearty 
approval. 

Such  was  the  true  condition  when  the  Federal  gov 
ernment  was  launched  by  the  inauguration  of  Washing- 
tor  in  1789.  The  immense  personal  influence  of  the 
President  prevented  for  the  time  being  any  grave  party 
divisions,  guaranteed  an  era  of  good  feeling,  and  secured 
confidence  in  the  stability  of  the  new  political  order. 
And  yet  in  his  first  cabinet  there  were  two  distinguished 
men,  Jefferson  and  Hamilton,  who  were  radically  dis 
similar  in  their  views  on  nearly  all  constitutional  ques 
tions.  These  differences  were  indeed  so  great  that  Jef 
ferson  withdrew  from  the  cabinet  after  about  three 
years'  service  as  Secretary  of  State.  There  were  still, 
notwithstanding,  elements  of  discord  in  Congress  and  in 
the  country  which  crystalized  in  well-defined  party 
organization  before  the  close  of  Washington's  second 
term.  It  was  evident  from  his  farewell  address  that  he 
clearly  foresaw  some  of  the  dangers,  foreign  and  domes 
tic,  that  impended  over  the  new  government  and  threat 
ened  to  strangle  the  infant  Hercules  in  its  cradle. 
Hence,  his  emphatic  warning  against  entangling  alliances 
with  foreign  nations  and  his  admonitory  appeals  on  the 
evils  of  sectionalism. 

It  was  a  national  misfortune  that  the  official  mantle  of 
Washington  fell  on  John  Adams,  the  head  and  front  of 
the  Federal  party.  For  while  Mr.  Adams  was  a  states 
man  of  incorruptible  integrity  and  tried  patriotism,  he 
hardly  possessed  a  single  qualification  for  the  Presi- 


56  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

dency.  If  not  the  author  of  the  Jay  treaty,  he  was 
largely  responsible  for  that  diplomatic  blunder  which 
practically  surrendered  the  freedom  of  the  seas.  His 
"Defense  of  the  American  Constitutions,"  a  prosy  and 
ponderous  book,  satisfied  all  thinking  men  that  he  was 
the  merest  plodder  in  the  science  of  government. 
Besides  all  these  proofs  of  incapacity,  his  deliberate 
sanction  of  the  Alien  and  Sedition  laws  was  such  a 
flagrant  outrage  on  the  cardinal  principles  of  American 
liberty,  that  he  was  justly  relegated  to  the  shades  of 
Quincy.  Against  these  and  similar  invasions  of  per 
sonal  and  State  rights,  Mr.  Jefferson,  with  the  concur 
rence  and  co-operation  of  Mr.  Madison,  prepared  and 
published  the  Kentucky  and  Virginia  resolutions. 
These  masterly  political  documents  were  henceforth  the 
Magna  Charta  of  State  sovereignty  and  the  text-book  of 
the  Republican  party. 

The  presidential  contest  of  1800  was  fairly  won  by  the 
Republicans,  but  the  Federalists,  thus  early  in  our  na 
tional  history,  sought  by  mere  technicalities  to  defeat  the 
popular  will  in  the  overthrow  of  Jefferson  and  the  sub 
stitution  of  Aaron  Burr,  who  had  hardly  been  thought 
of  in  connection  with  the  Presidency.  The  struggle  in 
the  House  of  Representatives  was  long  and  dubious, 
and  the  excitement  in  the  country  intense  and  absorb 
ing.  It  developed  not  only  a  spirit  of  partyism,  but  a 
spirit  of  sectionalism  that  has  marked  all  our  subsequent 
history.  One  of  the  earliest  measures  of  Mr.  Jefferson's 
administration — we  refer  to  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana 
— was  bitterly  opposed  by  New  England  and  its  allies 


JAMESTOWN    AND    PLYMOUTH    ROCK.  57 

chiefly,  if  not  solely,  on  the  ground  that  it  increased  the 
preponderance  of  the  Southern  States.  There  was, 
however,  no  anti-slavery  outcry.  This  fanaticism  was 
the  invention  of  a  later  age.  Abolitionism  had  as  yet 
neither  birth  nor  self-conscious  being.  This  vast  addi 
tion  to  our  national  territory  gave  us  control  of  the  Mis 
sissippi,  from  its  head-waters  to  the  Belize,  and  made  it 
possible  for  us  to  become  a  first-class  political  and  com 
mercial  power.  Another  thing  remained  to  be  done  to 
free  us  from  Colonial  vassalage.  Our  commercial  inde 
pendence,  as  already  intimated,  had  been  seriously  com 
promised  by  British  influence  and  the  servility  of  the  Fed 
eral  party  in  the  negotiation  and  ratification  of  the  Jay 
treaty.  The  embargo  and  non-intercourse  acts  were 
purely  defensive  measures,  and  they  aroused  the  fiercest 
opposition  of  the  Federal  party.  All  through  this 
struggle  for  commercial  independence,  Puritan  New 
England  and  her  allies  were  in  open  revolt  against  the 
Republican  administration. 

But  for  these  intestine  troubles  the  second  British 
war  might  have  been  indefinitely  postponed.  The 
Hartford  Convention — the  refusal  of  Massachusetts  to 
respond  to  the  call  for  the  militia — the  blue-light  signals 
along  the  North  Atlantic  coast,  were  but  the  continu 
ous  and  consistent  developments  of  a  well-matured  con 
spiracy  against  the  Federal  government.  Some  parti 
san  writers  of  American  history — it  would  be  a  flagrant 
misnomer  to  style  them  historians — have  spared  no 
pains  to  conceal  or  extenuate  these  traitorous  policies 
and  practices  of  Federalism.  But  so  convincing  was 


58  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

the  proof  that,  as  early  as  1808,  this  corrupt  organiza 
tion  could  only  muster  eight  votes  in  the  Senate,  and  in 
a  little  while  it  ceased  to  exercise  any  marked  influence 
in  national  politics. 

Notwithstanding  this  defection  of  New  England,  the 
patriotism  of  the  country  was  equal  to  the  emergency. 
O  r  gallant  little  navy  vindicated  the  rights  of  neutrals, 
which  had  been  infringed  by  the  Orders  in  Council 
and  the  Berlin  and  Milan  decrees,  and  which  Jay's 
treaty  had  tamely  yielded  up.  Our  success  on  land  had 
likewise  been  most  gratifying.  Scott's  victories  on  the 
Canadian  border  had  been  exceptionally  brilliant, 
whilst  at  New  Orleans,  Jackson,  with  his  Western  rifle 
men,  had  routed  the  veterans  of  the  Peninsular  war 
under  the  leadership  of  the  gallant,  but  ill-starred  Pack- 
enham.  The  treaty  of  Ghent  for  the  first  time  placed 
our  national  independence  on  a  firm  basis,  and  the 
honor  is  due  almost  exclusively  to  the  skill  and  gallantry 
of  the  Democratic  chieftains  in  field  and  cabinet. 

The  period  which  immediately  followed  the  adminis 
tration  of  Madison  is  usually  characterized  as  the  "Era 
of  good  feeling  "  So  complete  was  the  overthrow  of 
Federalism  that  Mr.  Monroe  was  re-elected  to  a  second 
term  without  the  slightest  show  of  opposition.  The 
defeat  of  Jackson  and  the  election  of  the  younger  Adams, 
in  1824,  was  attributed  by  a  vast  majority  of  the  people 
to  a  corrupt  coalition  between  "the  Puritan  and  the 
blackleg."  It  was  fiercely  rebuked  in  the  next  pres 
idential  campaign  by  the  triumphant  election  of  Jack 
son.  It  was  during  this  season  of  domestic  quietness 


JAMESTOWN    AND    PLYMOUTH    ROCK.  59 

that  Mexico,  under  the  leadership  of  Santa  Anna  and 
Victoria,  subverted  the  Empire  of  Iturbide — that  Simon 
Boliva  achieved  the  independence  of  Columbia  and 
Peru,  and  that  Bozzaris  and  his  "Suliote  band"  paved 
the  way  for  the  re-establishment  of  Greek  nationality. 
These  triumphs  of  Democracy  on  both  continents 
aroused  the  enthusiasm  and  enlisted  the  sympathies  of 
all  classes  in  the  United  States.  They  furnished  occa 
sion  also  for  some  of  the  finest  displays  of  forensic  ora 
tory  ever  listened  to  in  the  halls  of  the  American  Con 
gress.  This  picture  of  Arcadian  repose  and  loveliness 
was  sadly  marred  by  thrusting  upon  the  country  the 
"Negro  Problem."  That  problem  is  the  ghastly  skele 
ton  in  our  national  closet.  It  is  the  Sphinx  riddle  of 
American  politics,  which  no  halting  Edipus  has  yet 
been  found  to  solve. 

Our  purpose  now  is  to  deal  with  that  special  issue 
which,  more  than  all  else,  contributed  to  weaken  the 
bond  of  fellowship  between  the  North  and  South,  and 
ultimately  to  divide  the  country  into  geographical  par 
ties.  The  minor  questions  of  tariff,  banks,  etc.,  were 
important,  but  not  of  necessity  vital.  They  could  in  no 
just  sense  be  regarded  as  sectional,  for  while  it  is  true 
that  the  Northern  section  of  the  Union  was  most  clam 
orous  for  protection  to  domestic  industries,  there  was  a 
respectable  minority  of  Southern  voters  who  were  afraid 
of  the  competition  of  the  pauper  labor  of  Europe.  So, 
likewise,  while  the  commercial  centers  of  the  Middle 
and  Eastern  States  were  chiefly  anxious  for  a  national 
currency  of  uniform  value,  yet  there  were  many  South- 


60  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

ern  sympathizers  who  were  dissatisfied  with  the  obvious 
inconveniences  of  the  State  banking  system.  These 
questions,  however,  were  susceptible  of  ready  adjust 
ment.  The  nullification  movement  in  South  Carolina 
was  quieted  by  the  compromise  of  1833,  and  the  bank 
troubles  were  allayed  by  the  heroic  conduct  of  General 
Jackson.  These  agitations  were  not  only  evanescent, 
but  insignificant  compared  with  the  anti-slavery  agita 
tion  that  first  assumed  political  prominence  in  connec 
tion  with  the  admission  of  Missouri  in  1820.  This 
negro  craze — for  so  it  may  be  fitly  characterized — was 
small  in  its  beginnings  and  had  a  plausible  humanitarian 
basis.  It  was  for  many  years  confined  to  the  Quakers 
and  a  few  aged  spinsters  in  the  vicinity  of  Boston,  who, 
in  the  earlier  days  of  the  Plymouth  colony,  would  have 
been  burned  as  witches.  The  intelligence  of  New  Eng 
land  ever  repudiated  it  as  a  mischievous  fanaticism. 
But  as  the  little  cloud,  which  Elijah's  servant  saw  rise 
out  of  the  sea,  continued  to  spread,  until  it  darkened 
the  whole  heavens,  so  this  evil  leaven  of  abolitionism 
waxed  more  and  more  until  it  imperiled  the  integrity  of 
the  Union.  Its  foremost  champion.  Garrison,  was 
dragged,  with  a  rope  round  his  neck,  through  the  streets 
of  Boston,  amidst  the  hootings  ot  the  small  boys  and  the 
curses  of  what  Van  Hoist  styles  the  "gentlemanly  rab 
ble"  of  the  city.  Gerritt  Smith  and  Wendell  Phillips 
were  frequently  pelted  with  stale  eggs  and  howled  down 
by  the  mob.  But,  before  many  years,  it  became  a 
political  factor  of  vast  weight  in  State  and  National  pol 
itics.  The  North  became  jealous,  not  only  of  Southern 


JAMESTOWN    AND    PLYMOUTH    ROCK.  6 1 

prosperity,  but  of  its  continued  ascendency  in  the  coun 
cils  of  the  nation.  There  was  murmuring  against  the 
three-fifths  slave  representation  in  the  House  and  com 
plaints  against  the  rendition  of  fugitive  slaves.  These 
fanatics  won  their  first  victory  in  the  passage  of  the  Mis 
souri  Compromise.  While  it  was  a  measure  of  pacifi 
cation,  it  was  a  perilous  concession  to  Abolitionism. 
By  it  the  South  was  at  once  overreached  and  betrayed. 
Henceforward  the  North,  while  clinging  to  the  human 
itarian  features  of  anti  slavery  ism,  became  more  arro 
gant  and  aggressive.  Congress  was  flooded  with 
memorials  praying  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the 
District  of  Columbia  and  wherever  the  General  govern 
ment  held  exclusive  jurisdiction.  The  halls  of  Congress 
resounded  with  bitter  denunciations  of  the  slave-holding 
aristocracy.  Inflammatory  appeals  were  made  to  the 
sectional  prejudices  of  the  North  and  West.  Men, 
whose  forefathers  were  brutal  task-masters  and  profes 
sional  slave-hunters  on  the  coasts  of  Africa,  stood  up 
and  lectured  the  Southern  people  on  the  iniquity  of 
chattel  slavery.  Such  a  policy  of  course  produced 
estrangement,  and  years  before  the  era  of  bleeding  Kan 
sas  and  John  Brown's  midnight  raid,  the  two  civiliza 
tions,  correspondent  to  the  two  sections,  were  in  as 
deadly  feud  as  Saxon  and  Celt. 

The  rise  of  the  National  Whig  party  in  1836  and  its 
triumph  in  1840  promised  to  allay  for  a  season  the 
feverish  excitement  en  this  thoroughly  sectional  issue. 
That  party  embodied  a  large  proportion  of  the  virtue 
and  intelligence  of  both  sections,  and  for  a  time  kept 


62  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

under  control  the  worse  elements  that  had  entered  into 
its  composition. 

Party  ties  are  not  easily  broken,  nor  party  allegiance 
readily  foresworn.  As  long  as  the  two  great  National 
parties  could  preserve  their  organization  intact,  there 
was  no  ground  of  apprehension  for  the  safety  of  the 
Republic.  Two  events,  however,  were  at  hand  which 
added  tresh  fuel  to  the  flames.  The  annexation  of 
Texas  and  the  defeat  of  Mr.  Clay  for  the  Presidency 
greatly  exasperated  the  Northern  extremists.  The 
former,  followed  as  it  was  by  the  brilliant  campaigns  of 
Scott  and  Taylor,  hardly  wakened  a  momentary  enthu 
siasm  amongst  the  masses  of  New  England.  The 
acquisition  of  an  immense  territory,  rich  in  agricultural 
and  mineral  resources,  was  viewed  with  disfavor  and 
trepidation  lest  it  might  strengthen  the  South  and  restore 
the  lost  equilibrium  between  the  contending  sections. 
The  election  of  Taylor  and  the  compromise  of  1850 
caused,  it  is  true,  a  temporary  lull,  yet  it  proved  to  be 
the  calm  that  precedes  the  terrible  cyclone.  The 
decade  that  immediately  followed  was  a  period  of  inces 
sant  agitation.  Compromises  had  been  singularly  inef 
ficient.  Constitutional  compacts  were  not  less  power 
less  to  stay  the  whelming  torrent  of  anti-slavery  fanati 
cism.  The  Bible  and  the  Constitution  were  alike 
spurned  as  in  the  interest  of  slave  catchers  and  men- 
stealers,  and  their  sacred  restraints  trampled  under  the 
swinish  hoofs  of  a  Circean  rabble  drunk  with  partisan 
fury.  The  Missouri  Compromise  was  very  soon  repealed. 
We,  as  already  intimated,  have  no  disposition  to  defend 


JAMESTOWN    AND    PLYMOUTH    ROCK.  63 

it.  It  was  a  fraud  and  an  injustice  to  the  slave  States. 
Esau's  sale  of  his  birthright  for  a  mess  of  red  lentils 
was  a  marvelously  shrewd  business  transaction  com 
pared  with  that  political  folly.  And  yet  its  repeal  was 
the  opening  of  Pandora's  box.  It  fanned  the  flames  of 
sectional  controversy.  It  substituted  squatter  sover 
eignty  for  constitutional  safeguards.  It  was  the  proxi 
mate  cause  of  that  border  strife  which  was  the  bloody 
prologue  of  the  fearful  tragedy  that  shortly  followed. 
Nor  is  it  allowable  for  those  who  would  acquaint  them 
selves  with  the  deeper  philosophy  of  the  war  between 
the  two  civilizations  to  overlook  or  undervalue  the 
influence  of  that  remarkable  book,  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin. 
The  author  was  liberally  endowed  with  hereditary  gen 
ius  which  had  been  enriched  by  more  than  average  lit- 
eiary  culture.  Whilst  there  was  a  coloring  of  truth  in 
many  of  its  statements,  it  was  in  the  main  a  frightful 
caricature  of  Southern  slavery.  Comparatively  few  of 
its  Northern  readers  were  curious  to  know  the  exact 
truth  of  its  intensely  dramatic  representations.  Whether 
Topsy  was  a  picture  from  real  slave-life  or  a  figment  of 
the  fancy  was  of  no  personal  concern  with  them;  whether 
Legree  was  a  flesh  and  blood  entity  or  the  coinage  of  a 
distempered  brain  was  of  the  slightest  imaginable  con 
sequence.  It  was  quite  enough  that  it  nourished  their 
hatred  to  the  Nabobs  of  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas.  It 
might  be  easily  foreseen  that  a  people  who  were  stirred 
to  incendiary  violence  by  the  "awful  disclosures  of 
Maria  Monk"  would  be  thrilled  to  their  finger  tips  and 
infuriated  to  madness  by  the  overdrawn  pictures  of 


64  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

Uncle  Tom's  Cabin.  So  profound  was  the  impression 
that  even  until  to-day  the  worship  of  New  England  is 
divided  between  Uncle  Tom,  the  saintly  hero  of  Mrs. 
Stowe,  and  Brown  of  Ossawattomie,  the  martyr  of  the 
Quaker  poet,  Whittier.  Add  to  this  the  frantic  appeals 
of  a  hireling  priesthood  and  of  a  time-serving,  if  not 
subsidized  press,  and  it  is  not  strange  that,  like  a  "hell- 
broth,"  the  Puritan  blood  continued  to  boil  and  bubble 
with  ten-fold  fury. 

The  administration  of  Buchanan  was  the  close  of  the 
constitutional  period  of  our  national  history.  For  more 
than  sixty  years  the  South  had  ruled  the  destinies  of 
the  nation  in  peace  and  war.  To  this  statement  there 
are  hardly  any  noteworthy  exceptions,  and  it  may  be 
profitable  to  consider  the  results,  State  and  Federal, 
of  this  protracted  dynastic  sway.  The  whole  nation  had 
prospered  in  a  degree  that  may  well  excite  our  admira 
tion.  In  the  outset,  we  were  limited  on  the  south  and 
west  by  French  and  Spanish  occupation.  The  fairest 
and  most  productive  portions  of  the  continent  were 
under  the  flag  of  European  nationalities.  These  bar 
riers  to  our  territorial  extension  had  been  removed,  not 
by  war,  but  by  wise  and  well-directed  diplomacy.  Our 
commercial  independence,  without  which  our  disen- 
thrallment  from  British  dominion  would  have  been  of 
little  or  no  worth,  had  been  achieved  by  the  gallantry 
of  our  army  and  navy.  Impressment,  right  of  search, 
and  other  hindrances  to  our  national  commerce,  had 
been  forever  abolished.  The  Monroe  doctrine  had  not 
only  been  asserted,  but  practically  enforced.  Indian 


JAMESTOWN    AND    PLYMOUTH    ROCK.  65 

hostilities  were  largely  a  thing  of  the  past.  The  greater 
portion  of  the  partially  domesticated  tribes  had  been 
removed  to  reservations  provided  for  them  in  the  far 
West.  These  ancient  denizens  of  the  forest,  under  the 
protection  and  patronage  of  the  government,  had 
abandoned  the  chase  and  engaged  in  agriculture  and 
the  mechanic  arts.  The  financial  condition  of  the  coun 
try  was  all  that  could  be  desired.  The  debt  incurred 
by  three  foreign  wars  and  various  Indian  disturbances 
had  been  liquidated.  The  excise  and  land  tax  system 
had  been  discontinued,  and  with  honest  and  economi 
cal  administration  the  revenue  from  the  customs  was 
adequate  to  meet  current  expenses.  The  growth  of  our 
population  had  been  normal,  and  this  natural  increase 
was  supplemented  by  a  vast  immigration  from  the  Old 
World.  The  benefits  of  this  immigration  had  inured 
in  a  disproportionate  measure  to  the  North,  principally 
because  that  section  had  almost  a  monopoly  of  direct 
steam  communication  with  the  transatlantic  States. 
Our  export  trade,  consisting  mainly  of  the  agricultural 
products  of  Southern  industry,  was  constantly  enlarging. 
Indeed,  in  all  parts  of  the  Union  there  were  evidences 
of  enterprise  and  thrift,  as  shown  by  the  steady  increase 
of  taxable  values.  Manufactures  were  flourishing, 
especially  the  cotton  and  iron  industries  of  the  Eastern 
and  Middle  States,  which  had  for  many  years  been  stim 
ulated  and  fostered  by  protective  tariffs.  The  South 
enjoyed  its  full  share  of  this  general  prosperity.  Despite 
the  alleged  economical  disadvantages  of  our  labor  sys 
tem,  the  slave  States  had  increased  vastly  in  material 


66  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

wealth  with  each  successive  decade.  Georgia  alone  had 
added  three  hundred  millions  of  dollars  to  her  capital 
from  1840  to  1850.  Her  sister  Southern  States  had 
nearly  kept  pace  with  her,  and  probably  one  or  more 
had  out-stripped  her.  Without  the  aid  of  fishery  boun 
ties  or  of  incidental  protection  to  her  industrial  pursuits, 
she,  together  with  South  Carolina  and  Tennessee,  had 
more  wealth  per  capita  than  the  foremost  State  of  New 
England.  In  this  estimate  we  of  course  rate  their  negro 
property  and  its  regular  increase  at  market  value. 
Besides,  with  all  their  boasted  advantages  of  common 
schools,  there  was  a  smaller  percentage  of  crime  and  a 
larger  percentage  of  higher  education  in  the  older 
Southern  States  than  in  the  land  of  steady  habits  and  of 
moral  ideas.  These  statements  may  startle,  but  they 
are  amply  sustained  by  the  census  statistics. 

In  two  respects  the  South  had  relatively  lost  ground. 
The  numerical  strength  of  the  free  States  had  grown 
more  rapidly  than  the  slave  States.  This,  as  heretofore 
suggested,  was  due  in  some  measure  to  foreign  immigra 
tion.  And  the  direction  of  that  current  was  itself  influ 
enced  chiefly  by  the  character  of  the  Southern  climate 
and  its  comparative  lack  of  manufactories.  Another 
relative  deficiency  of  the  South  was  in  professional 
authorship.  This  has  been  made  the  occasion  of  many 
spiteful  flings  at  Southern  literature.  These  invidious 
attacks  were  prompted  by  sectional  jealousy  and  echoed 
by  a  class  of  Southern  men  who  neither  understand 
what  they  say  nor  whereof  they  affirm.  The  small  num 
ber  of  professional  Southern  writers  admits  of  ready 


JAMESTOWN    AND    PLYMOUTH    ROCK.  6/ 

explanation.  The  educated  young  men  of  the  South 
devoted  themselves  mainly  to  the  learned  professions, 
and  much  the  larger  part  to  politics  and  statesmanship. 
Hence,  it  was  a  matter  of  general  remark,  that  in  the 
halls  of  Congress,  in  the  diplomatic  service,  and  in  all 
that  pertains  to  statesmanship  in  its  higher  and  broader 
signification,  men  of  Southern  birth  or  lineage  have 
borne  away  the  palm  of  excellence.  Our  historic  names 
— Washington,  Jefferson,  Madison,  Marshall,  Jackson, 
Clay,  Monroe,  Crawford,  Calhoun,  Preston,  Randolph, 
and  a  number  of  lesser  lights — were  either  directly  or 
collaterally  of  Cavalier  blood.  But  it  argues  strange 
ignorance  to  assert  that  even  in  literature  and  science 
the  South  has  not  produced  a  large  number  of  notably 
eminent  men  and  women.  She  may  justly  point  with 
pride  to  Legare,  whose  equal  in  the  highest  Hellenistic 
culture  is  rarely  found  in  any  age — to  Bledsoe,  whose 
Theodicy  entitles  him  to  rank  with  Leibnitz  in  the  realm 
of  theological  metaphysics — to  Maury,  who  mapped  out 
the  currents  of  the  ocean,  and  by  his  "  Physical  Geog 
raphy  of  the  Sea"  lessened  by  a  hundred-fold  the  perils 
of  navigation — to  Audubon,  the  world  famed  ornithol 
ogist,  who  was  familiar  with  every  bird  of  North  Amer 
ica,  from  the  humming-bird  of  the  tropics  to  the  eagle 
of  the  Rockies — to  Calhoun,  whose  work  on  Govern 
ment  is  a  master-piece  of  political  science — to  Edgar 
Allen  Poe,  whom  Victor  Hugo  pronounces  the  greatest 
poet  of  America,  and  the  superior  of  Hawthorne  as  a 
romancist — to  the  LeContes,  unsurpassed  in  natural 
science — to  a  long  array  of  other  names,  as  Simms, 


68  HISTORIC    ERAS. 

Warfield,  Hayne,  Timrod,  Wilde,  Key,  Tucker,  Ken 
nedy,  Wirt,  Longstreet,  Alston,  Lanier,  Charlton, 
Evans,  Ticknor,  French,  Lipscomb,  Thornwell,  any 
and  all  of  whom  are  worthy  of  fellowship  with  the 
best  writers  who  illuminate  the  pages  of  Harper  and  the 
Atlantic  Monthly.  As  to  periodical  literature,  it  may 
be  gravely  questioned  whether  any  American  publica 
tion,  monthly  or  quarterly,  ever  reached  the  standard 
of  literary  excellence  achieved  by  the  Southern  Quar 
terly  Review  in  its  palmiest  days. 

We  say  these  things  without  meaning  to  claim  for  the 
literature  of  either  section  any  extraordinary  merit. 
While  we  can  now  properly  boast  of  a  "few  immortal 
names,"  yet  it  will  require  at  least  another  half  century 
to  develop  a  distinctive  American  literature  that  shall 
rightfully  challenge  a  place  beside  the  old  masters  of 
England,  Germany  and  France.  When  that  time 
arrives,  we  venture  the  prediction  that  the  South  will 
lead  the  North  in  literature,  as  it  has  heretofore  sur 
passed  it  in  statesmanship.  At  this  point  we  close  our 
summary  of  events  relating  to  the  constitutional  period 
of  American  history.  The  whole  country  was  prosper 
ous  and  contented,  except  for  that  sectional  issue  which 
had  been  persistently  thrust  upon  the  nation  from  the 
date  of  the  Missouri  Compromise. 

To  this  Augustan  age  of  the  Republic,  future  genera 
tions  will  recur  with  unmixed  satisfaction.  The  next 
quarter  of  a  century  was  a  period  of  chaos  and  misrule. 
But  as  the  reign  of  Nero,  Caligula  and  Domitian — the 
tyrants  and  scourges  of  mankind — was  eventually  sue- 


JAMESTOWN    AND    PLYMOUTH    ROCK.  69 

ceeded  by  the  age  of  the  Antonines,  the  "Indian  sum 
mer"  of  Roman  history,  so  we  cherish  the  hope  that, 
under  the  present  political  auspices,  brighter  days  and 
grander  destinies  are  yet  in  store  for  our  common 
country. 


HISTORICAL  AND  BIOGRAPHICAL 
SKETCHES, 


A  NOTABLE  CHRISTMAS, 


DECEMBER   25,    1776. 


The  darkest  period  of  our  revolutionary  struggle  was 
in  the  early  winter  of  1776. 

The  American  defeat  in  the  battle  of  Long  Island,  the 
British  occupation  of  New  York,  and  the  subsequent 
capitulation  of  Fort  Washington,  involving  the  loss  of 
three  thousand  of  the  best  troops  of  the  army,  consti 
tuted  a  series  of  military  disasters  which  threatened  the 
immediate  extinction  of  American  liberty. 

At  this  critical  juncture,  Washington  conducted  that 
masterly  retreat  through  New  Jersey  which  won  for 
him  the  title  of  the  American  Fabius. 

Nor  were  these  military  reverses  the  only  alarming 
feature  of  the  situation. 

The  credit  of  the  government  had  reached  its  lowest 
ebb,  and  would  have  been  utterly  wrecked  but  for  the 
private  resources  of  Robert  Morris,  of  Philadelphia. 
This  patriotic  millionaire,  in  connection  with  a  few 
others,  pledged  his  individual  credit  for  the  support  of 
the  lately  organized  government. 

Nor  must  it  be  overlooked  that  desertions  were  an 
hourly  occurrence,  and  that  the  term  of  enlistment  of 


74  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

thousands  who  still  stood  at  their  posts  was  ready  to 
expire. 

After  the  junction  of  Sullivan's  troops  with  the  main 
army  under  Washington,  the  aggregate  force  numbered 
barely  five  thousand. 

There  were  yet  other  resources  for  popular  discour 
agement.  Six  months  had  elapsed  since  the  continental 
congress  had  solemnly  declared  that  the  United  Colo 
nies  "were  and  of  right  ought  to  be  free  and  independ 
ent  States."  And  still  France,  the  hereditary  enemy  of 
England,  and  the  natural  ally  of  the  struggling  colonists, 
refused  to  recognize  the  American  commissioners  at 
Paris  in  their  diplomatic  capacity. 

The  French  government  silently  winked  at  the  occa 
sional  shipment  of  arms  and  other  munitions  of  war  from 
Havre  and  Bordeaux,  but  beyond  this  gave  no  moral  or 
material  aid. 

There  was  still  another  drawback  to  colonial  success 
at  this  momentous  crisis.  Already  there  existed  bitter 
rivalry  between  the  leading  officers  of  the  army.  Espe 
cially  was  Washington  badgered  and  maligned  and 
greatly  crippled  by  Gates,  Conway  and  their  fellow  com 
patriots. 

Well  has  it  been  said  by  a  distinguished  historian  that 
the  whole  movement  in  behalf  of  independence  seemed 
on  the  verge  of  dissolution. 

Philadelphia,  the  seat  of  government,  was  itself  so 
imperiled  by  the  threatened  advance  of  Lord  Howe 
from  New  York,  that  it  was  judged  expedient  to  remove 
the  national  capitol  to  Baltimore. 


A    NOTABLE    CHRISTMAS.  75 

The  time  was  at  hand  when  it  was  indispensible  that 
something  be  done  to  revive  the  enthusiasm  of  a  dispir 
ited  army.  Washington  decided  to  strike  a  decisive 
blow  in  some  direction  and  fortunately  the  opportunity 
was  not  lacking. 

Cornwallis,  after  driving  the  patriot  army  beyond  the 
Delaware,  proceeded  to  station  detachments  at  various 
points  on  the  Jersey  side  of  the  river.  Trenton  and 
Princeton  were  two  of  the  points  selected. 

And  now  the  commander-in  chief  cast  aside  the  shield 
of  Fabius  and  grasped  the  sword  of  Marcellus.  He 
planned  a  night  attack  on  the  Hessian  camp  at  Trenton. 

At  this  place  there  was  quartered  fifteen  hundred 
Hessians,  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Rahl.  They 
were  mercenary  troops,  and,  like  the  southern  loyalists 
of  the  late  federal  army,  they  plundered  without  stint, 
and  oppressed  without  mercy.  Washington,  apprised 
of  their  extreme  fondness  for  Christmas  cheer  and  jolity, 
resolved  to  make  the  attack  on  Christmas  night  and 
thus  surprise  them  in  their  cups. 

As  the  veteran  Carthagenians  who  had  followed  Han 
nibal  across  the  Alps  were  debauched  by  the  luxuries  of 
Capua,  so  Rahl  and  his  hireling  soldiery  were  demoral 
ized  by  their  drunken  festivities  at  Trenton.  They  did 
not  dream  of  a  surprise,  for  the  Delaware  river  was 
swollen  out  of  its  banks  and  was  filled  with  large  quan 
tities  of  floating  ice. 

But  at  midnight  the  American  commander-in-chief 
succeeded  in  putting  a  single  division  of  his  army  on  the 
Jersey  shore.  The  night  was  stormy  and  starless,  and 


76  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

so  rapidly  did  Washington  execute  the  movement  that 
the  enemy's  sentries  fired  not  a  single  gun. 

At  4  o'clock  in  the  morning  he  struck  the  camp, 
uproarious  with  merriment,  and  Colonel  Rahl,  stupefied 
with  beer  and  whiskey,  was  shot  down  while  attempt 
ing  to  rally  his  besotted  troops.  One  thousand  of  them 
threw  down  their  arms.  The  remainder,  with  a  squad 
ron  of  British  cavalry,  fled  in  wild  disorder. 

Having  accomplished  his  present  purpose,  Washing 
ton  recrossed  the  river  with  his  prisoners  a  little  alter 
daybreak,  having  lost  only  four  men,  two  killed  and  two 
frozen  to  death. 

In  a  few  days  he  resolved  to  surprise  the  stronger 
forces  stationed  at  Princeton  by  another  brilliant  dash. 

This  he  did  on  January  2d,  1777.  He  proceeded  by 
a  circuitous  route,  intending  to  strike  the  enemy  both  in 
front  and  rear.  By  a  singular  mishap,  one  wing  of  his 
army  unexpectedly  encountered  a  British  brigade.  This 
wing  consisted  of  fresh  recruits,  who  were  so  roughly 
handled  that  they  were  being  driven  in  confusion  from 
the  field.  This  temporary  advantage  gave  the  main 
body  of  the  British  time  to  rally  lor  a  heavier  onset. 

At  almost  the  same  instant  General  Mercer,  one  of 
the  bravest  and  best  of  the  patriot  officers,  fell  mortally 
wounded  in  the  thickest  of  the  fight. 

In  this  emergency  Washington  performed  one  of 
those  deeds  of  personal  valor  that  reminds  one  of 
Marlborough's  desperate  charges  at  Blenhiem.  He 
spurred  his  horse  into  the  very  midst  of  the  opposing 
columns  and  with  voice  and  gesture  reassured  his 


A    NOTABLE    CHRISTMAS.  77 

wavering  troops  and  drove  the  enemy  at  the  point  of 
the  bayonet. 

The  contest  was  close  and  indecisive,  but  the  British 
loss  in  killed,  wounded  and  prisoners  were  four  times  as 
heavy  as  the  American  loss. 

After  re-establishing  his  lines  Washington  retired  in 
good  order  to  Morriston,  where  he  fixed  his  winter 
quarters. 

These  victories  at  Trenton  and  Princeton,  which  first 
broke  the  record  of  continuous  defeat,  were  an  inspira 
tion  to  the  Americans,  and  in  equal  ratio  carried  terror 
to  the  hearts  of  their  enemies. 

So  elated  was  the  continental  congress  by  these 
exploits  of  the  commander-in-chief  that  they  hastened 
to  invest  him,  if  not  the  title,  at  least  with  the  powers 
of  dictatorship.  They  were  followed  by  more  substan 
tial  results  in  the  recovery  of  New  Jersey,  except  New 
Brunswick  and  Amboy. 

Cornwallis,  who  had  thought  that  the  colonies  were 
virtually  subjugated,  was  about  sailing  for  England. 
But  the  Trenton  and  Princeton  defeats  so  alarmed  Lord 
Howe  that  he  recalled  Cornwallis  to  his  command 

Thus  it  will  readily  be  seen  that  Washington's  cross 
ing  the  Delaware  on  that  notable  Christmas  night  was 
the  pivotal  event  of  the  colonial  struggle.  Not  that  the 
patriots  were  not  to  experience  other  reverses  in  the 
field  and  hardships  not  less  severe  on  the  march  and  the 
bivouac,  as  at  the  Valley  Forge  encampment,  but  it 
broke  the  record  of  continuous  defeat. 

In  the  September  following,  Burgoyne's  well  discip- 


78  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

lined  army,  moving  with  impervious  step  down  the  val 
ley  of  the  Hudson,  was  checked  at  Stillwater  and  forced 
to  surrender  at  Saratoga.  Morgan's  corps  of  riflemen 
and  Arnold's  dashing  cavalry  were  more  than  a  set-off 
to  the  military  incompetence  of  Gates. 

From  this  time  the  boasted  charm  of  British  invinci 
bility  was  gone,  and  in  February,  1778,  the  American 
commissioners  at  Paris  secured  a  treaty  of  Alliance, 
offensive  and  defensive,  with  the  French  government. 

That  diplomatic  feat,  the  credit  of  which  was  largely 
due  to  the  wisdom  of  Franklin,  assured  the  ultimate 
triumph  of  the  American  cause. 

The  seat  of  active  military  operations  was,  in  the 
closing  years  of  the  contest,  removed  to  Georgia  and  the 
Carolinas  Savannah,  Augusta,  Ninety-six,  Camden, 
King's  Mountain  and  Guildford  Court  House,  were  the 
strategic  points  where  Greene  and  Cornwallis  and  their 
subalterns  wrestled  for  the  prize  of  empire. 

In  October,  1781,  Cornwallis,  the  old  antagonist  of 
Washington  in  the  Jersey's  in  1776,  for  the  last  time, 
stood  at  bay  at  Yorktown,  Virginia.  Greene  and  Mor 
gan  had  at  last  outwitted  him  in  the  southern  campaign, 
and  now  he  was  like  a  lion  caught  in  the  toils  of  the 
hunter. 

On  the  land  side  he  was  shut  in  by  the  allied  armies, 
American  and  French,  commanded  by  Washington, 
with  the  aid  of  LaFayette  and  de  Rochambeau.  On 
the  seaward  side  he  was  cut  off  from  escape  by  the  fleet 
of  de  Grasse. 

After  a  fruitless  effort  to  extricate  himself  from  this 


A    NOTABLE    CHRISTMAS.  79 

veritable  cul  de  sac,  and  despairing  of  help  from  Sir 
Henry  Clinton,  he  decided  to  capitulate. 

It  is  a  striking  coincidence  that  Cornwallis  and  Wash 
ington  were  once  more  brought  face  to  face  as  in  the 
New  Jersey  campaign  of  1776. 

But  their  positions  were  reversed.  Washington  had 
the  vantage  ground,  and  on  the  I9th  of  October,  1781, 
Cornwallis  surrendered  his  army  of  seven  thousand  men 
to  the  American  commander 

This  virtually  closed  the  contest,  but  it  was  not  until 
the  resignation  of  Lord  North,  the  English  premier, 
that  the  treaty  of  Paris  was  ratified,  and  the  independ 
ence  of  the  thirteen  colonies  acknowledged.  Thus,  as 
had  been  said,  the  obstinacy  of  an  insane  sovereign, 
George  III.,  Great  Britain  lost  the  brightest  jewels  in 
her  crown. 

Next  Friday  is  the  hundred  and  sixteenth  anniversary 
of  the  battle  of  Trenton.  While  we  feast  in  moderation 
under  our  own  roof  tree  let  us  remember  that  little 
army  which  crossed  the  Delaware  in  the  face  of  storm 
and  sleet,  and  contributed  largely  to  secure  blessings  of 
constitutional  liberty. 


8O  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 


OLD  HICKORY, 


THE  English  people  were  fond  of  calling  Wellington 
the  ''Iron  Duke."  Not  more  so  than  Americans  were 
fond  of  calling  Andrew  Jackson  "Old  Hickory."  Both 
these  characterizations  indicated  the  toughness  of  the 
mental  and  moral  fiber  of  these  distinguished  leaders. 
Wellington  stretched  his  military  lines  from  Torres 
Vedras  to  Waterloo,  where  the  curtain  fell  on  the  Napo 
leonic  drama.  Jackson  won  an  undying  fame  at  New 
Orleans,  which  extended  until  with  one  hand  he  throt 
tled  the  United  States  Bank,  and  with  the  other 
squelched  the  nullification  movement 

General  Jackson,  after  having  suffered  defeat  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  in  1825,  came  to  the  Presi 
dency  in  March,  1829,  by  a  large  majority  of  electoral 
votes  over  his  predecessor,  the  younger  Adams. 

It  was  my  providential  lot  to  be  born  on  the  first 
anniversary  of  the  inauguration  of  Mr.  Adams.  It  was 
a  very  quiet  and  uneventful  administration,  distinguished 
for  nothing  beyond  the  visit  of  LaFayette,  the  friend  of 
Washington  and  of  the  thirteen  colonies  in  their  strug 
gle  for  independence.  From  Boston  to  Savannah  he 
was  granted  an  ovation,  and  when  he  left  our  shores  he 
sailed  in  a  national  war  ship,  the  Brandywine,  named 
for  the  battle  in  which  he  had  first  shed  his  blood  for 


OLD   HICKORY.  8  I 

American  liberty.  This  Arcadian  period  of  our  history 
was,  quite  naturally,  marked  by  individual  and  national 
prosperity.  In  a  sense,  it  closed  the  revolutionary  era 
embracing  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  on  which  occurred  the  death  of  the  elder 
Adams  and  of  his  yet  more  illustrious  compatriot, 
Thomas  Jefferson — one  the  author,  and  the  other  the 
principal  advocate  of  that  declaration.  In  some  respects 
this  Adams  administration  closed  likewise  the  era  of 
good  feeling,  for  the  Jacksonian  era  was  botn  eventful 
and  stormy. 

Andrew  Jackson  brought  to  the  Presidency  the  in 
stinct  ot  government,  backed  by  an  immense  will-power. 
My  earliest  personal  recollection  of  political  events  was 
in  connection  with  the  tariff  agitation,  which  was  the 
dominant  issue  of  Jackson's  first  Presidential  term.  For 
some  reason  the  village  of  Salem,  in  Clark  county,  was 
selected  as  a  rallying  point  lor  a  State  right's  demon 
stration  in  the  year  1832. 

There  was  no  very  large  assemblage,  but  a  procession 
of  some  hundreds  was  formed,  and  moved  with  intrepid 
step  to  the  Methodist  Church,  where  a  stirring  oration 
was  pronounced  by  William  Crosby  Dawson,  after 
wards  a  United  States  Senator.  From  that  time  for 
ward,  the  country,  from  one  end  to  the  other,  boiled 
and  bubbled  like  the  witches'  caldron  in  Macbeth.  The 
bitterness  between  the  opposing  factions  was  intense — 
the  administration  party  denouncing  the  followers  of 
Mr.  Calhoun  as  "  nullifiers,"  intended  to  be  a  term  of 
opprobrium,  and  the  latter  retaliating  by  branding  the 


82  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL 

followers  of  Jackson  as  "soap-tails,"  or  "  submission- 
ists. "  Charleston,  as  in  the  earthquake  of  1887,  was 
the  center  of  this  political  convulsion.  At  times  there 
was  an  ominous  speck  of  war  on  the  horizon,  and,  as  a 
precautionary  measure,  Jackson  sent  a  man-of-war  to 
Charleston  harbor  for  the  enforcement  of  the  collection 
of  the  customs  duties.  General  Scott  and  a  military 
command  were  likewise  awaiting  marching  orders. 
Meanwhile  force  bills  and  executive  proclamations  were 
discussed  by  the  partisan  press,  and  the  Virginia  and 
Kentucky  resolutions  were  debated  by  village  politi 
cians  throughout  the  country. 

In  this  crisis  occurred  the  famous  sensational  debate 
between  Webster  and  Hayne. 

Forty  years  ago  this  month  I  was  standing  in  the  east 
portico  of  the  Capitol  at  Washington,  and  incidentally 
engaged  in  a  conversation  with  a  venerable  gentleman 
who  proved  to  be  one  of  the  oldest  inhabitants  of  that 
city.  Amongst  some  striking  memorabilia  of  long 
departed  administrations  he  referred  in  an  interesting 
way  to  this  Webster-Hayne  discussion.  He  spoke  of 
it  as  a  war  of  giants,  which  shook  the  nation  from  end 
to  end  and  from  side  to  side.  He  regarded  the  dis 
putants  as  quite  evenly  matched,  and  attributed  the 
seeming  triumph  of  Webster  not  so  much  to  his  intel 
lectual  superiority  or  the  intrinsic  strength  of  his  posi 
tion  as  to  the  overshadowing  influence  of  Jackson.  The 
gallery  and  the  lobby  were  packed  with  the  partisans  of 
the  administration  which  put  Hayne  at  a  serious  disad 
vantage.  I  inquired  of  him  as  to  the  immediate  effect 


OLD   HICKORY.  83 

produced  by  Webster's  thrilling  peroration,  closing 
with  the  memorable  words,  "Liberty  and  union  now 
and  forever,  one  and  inseparable."  He  said  it  was 
overwhelming  and  was  greeted  with  an  outburst  of 
applause.  But  he  questioned  if  it  was  more  touching 
than  the  passage  in  Hayne's  speech  in  which  he  por 
trayed  the  weird  desolation  that  would  follow  the  vic 
tory  of  Federalism — a  desolation  so  vast  and  so  com 
plete  that 

•'Not  a  rose  in  the  wilderness  would  be  left  on  its  stalk 
To  tell  where  the  garden  had  been." 

He  further  stated  that  Mr.  Calhoun,  who  occupied 
the  vice-Presidential  Chair,  appeared  during  the  debate 
to  be  as  restless  as  a  caged  lion  or  an  imprisoned  eagle. 

From  the  portico  we  walked  to  the  Senate  chamber, 
the  arena  of  this  gladiatorial  combat.  It  seemed  to  me 
marvelously  diminutive  to  have  been  the  theatre  of  this 
historical  conflict  of  oratory  and  statesmanship.  But 
the  time  was  near  at  hand  when  compromise,  at  best  a 
questionable  expedient,  or  armed  contention  must 
ensue. 

At  this  juncture  Henry  Clay,  who  had  secured  the 
adoption  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  stepped  forward 
as  a  peacemaker  in  the  tariff  agitation.  The  essential 
feature  of  the  compromise  was  a  provision  for  the  grad 
ual  reduction  of  the  duties  imposed  by  the  tariff  of  1828, 
as  amended  in  1831  and  1832,  until  at  the  expiration  of 
ten  years  they  should  be  lowered  to  a  revenue  standard. 
After  considerable  discussion  their  compromise  was  ac 
cepted  by  both  belligerent  parties,  and  soon  after  Presi- 


84  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

dent  Jackson's  second  inauguration  he  signed  the  bill, 
and  for  a  short  season  he  had  handshakings  and  con 
gratulations.  Even  South  Carolina,  which  Sergeant  S. 
Prentiss  had  facetiously  dubbed  the  "hotspur  of  the 
union,"  "smoothed  her  wrinkled  front"  and  ceased  her 
war  talk. 

It  is  well  enough  to  note  that  this  Clay  compromise 
furnished  Peel  and  Wellington  a  pattern  for  the  English 
settlement  of  the  same  vexatious  tariff  problem  in  1846. 
There  was  this  difference,  however,  in  the  outcome  of 
the  two  compromises :  In  England  the  compact  was 
held  sacred,  and  now  wherever  the  union  jack  kisses  the 
sunlight  and  the  breeze,  free  trade  is  the  motto  of  that 
wonderful  empire.  The  Whig  tariff  of  1842  was  not  an 
execution  of  the  American  compact,  but  a  palpable 
evasion.  A  slight  reaction  occurred  under  the  Polk 
administration  in  1846,  but  during  the  last  two  or  more 
decades  the  policy  of  coddling  our  infant  industries  of  a 
hundred  years  old  has  been  pressed  by  the  barons  of  the 
spindle  and  the  loom  until  it  reached  high-water  mark 
in  the  McKinley  tariff,  now  being  vigorously  hammered 
by  Governor  Campbell  in  the  Buckeye  State.  We  can 
hardly  believe  that  this  policy,  which  is  but  a  relic  of 
the  middle  ages,  with  no  doubtful  resemblance  to  the 
piracy  of  the  Barbary  States,  can  survive  the  next  pres 
idential  campaign.  Other  issues  are  important,  but 
none  of  these  must  be  suffered  to  stand  in  the  way  of  a 
square  fight  on  the  tariff  question. 

Another  issue  of  Jackson's  administration  was  the 
recharteringof  the  National  Bank.  It  reached  a  climax 


OLD   HICKORY.  85 

during  Jackson's  second  term,  and  the  bank  went  down 
under  the  herculean  blows  of  the  old  hero.  Efforts  in 
and  out  of  Congress  were  made  to  intimidate  the  Presi 
dent.  There  was  even  a  vague  rumor  that  an  organized 
mob  would  march  on  the  Capitol,  if  needful,  to  secure  a 
renewal  of  the  charter.  General  Jackson  announced 
that  he  would  give  the  leaders  as  short  a  shrift  as  when, 
without  legal  warrant,  he  seized  and  executed  Arbuth- 
not  and  Anibuster.  "By  the  eternal,"  his  favorite  oath, 
"let  them  come!  With  the  people  at  my  back,  I  will 
hang  the  traitors  on  a  gallows  as  high  as  Haman  !"  Not 
only  did  he  veto  the  new  charter,  but  before  the  expi 
ration  of  the  old  charter  he  ordered  his  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  to  withdraw  from  the  vaults  of  the  bank  every 
dollar  of  the  Government  deposits.  Mr.  Duane,  the 
head  of  the  treasury  department,  refused  to  obey  the 
executive  order.  Without  parleying  with  that  cabinet 
official,  he  fired  him  in  a  twinkling  and  appointed  Roger 
B.  Taney,  of  Maryland,  his  successor,  who  straightway 
carried  out  the  President's  order.  The  bank  and  its 
friends  were  indignant  at  this  action,  which  they  stig 
matized  as  a  flagrant  usurpation.  An  impeachment 
was  talked  of,  and,  indeed,  a  resolution  of  censure  was 
placed  on  its  journal  by  the  Senate.  The  House  refused 
to  concur  in  this  resolution,  but  it  remained  on  record 
until  some  years  afterwards,  when  it  was  expunged  on 
motion  of  Jackson's  old  friend,  Thomas  H.  Ben\fotf,  ctf 
Missouri.  Having  removed  the  deposits,  the  next  step 
was  to  provide  for  their  safe-keeping.  For  this  purpose 
a  number  of  State  banks  were  selected  as  government 


86  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

depositories,  and  were  named,  by  the  opposition,  pet 
banks.  As  a  set-off  to  the  contraction  that  Nicholas 
Biddle,  President  of  the  United  States  Bank,  started  in 
Philadelphia,  the  President,  through  the  Secretary, 
instructed  these  pet  banks  to  discount  liberally  for  their 
customers.  Not  otherwise  could  the  financial  crash, 
already  impending,  be  postponed. 

As  it  was,  there  followed  a  season  of  apparent  pros 
perity.  The  State  banks,  being  stimulated  by  the  Gov 
ernment,  granted  discounts  on  flimsy  collaterals.  Money 
was  abundant  and  speculation  was  wild,  especially  in  the 
public  lands.  I  was  about  this  time  an  eyewitness  of  a 
very  significant  scene.  It  was  a  company  of  five  or  six 
substantial  citizens  of  Harris  county  mounted  on  good 
horses,  each  armed  with  a  brace  of  derringers  and  their 
saddle  wallets  pretty  well  crammed  with  paper  issues. 
They  were  setting  out  for  a  long  journey  through  North 
Alabama  to  northern  Mississippi,  where  they  were  to 
enter  public  lands. 

There  were  hundreds  of  such  scenes  occurring  through 
out  the  Southern  and  Middle  States.  As  a  consequence 
the  public  land  sales  became  enormous  and  the  treasury 
received  but  little  gold  and  silver  and  an  immense  quan 
tity  of  State  bank  issues.  This  state  of  affairs  led  to  the 
issuance  of  the  famous  specie  circular  requiring  all  pay 
ments  into  the  treasury  to  be  made  in  gold  and  silver. 
Wise  men  realized  that  the  end  of  this  sort  of  financier 
ing  could  but  be  disastrous,  and  it  came  with  the  fury 
and  crushing  weight  of  an  avalanche,  of  which  we  gave 


OLD   HICKORY.  8/ 

some  account  in  a  former  article   on   the   Van   Buren 
administration. 

There  were  two  striking  episodes  in  Jackson's  second 
term  which  we  must  not  entirely  overlook. 

The  principal  of  these  was  the  French  spoliations' 
claim. 

From  the  origin  of  the  Federal  Government  our  rev 
olutionary  ally  had  presumed  somewhat  on  her  kindly 
offices  in  that  affair  to  treat  our  Government  rather  irrev 
erently.  The  conduct  of  the  French  minister,  Genet, 
under  the  administration  of  the  elder  Adams,  was  so 
aggressive,  not  to  say  insolent,  that  we  were  near  being 
involved  in  a  war  with  the  French  directory.  Wash 
ington,  who  had  retired  to  the  shades  of  Mount  Vernon, 
was  again  appointed  commander-in-chief,  but  fortunately 
the  directory  recalled  Genet,  and  the  diplomatic  trouble 
was  adjusted. 

At  a  later  period,  during  the  Napoleonic  wars,  fre 
quent  depredations  were  committed  on  American  com 
merce  under  color  of  the  Berlin  and  Milan  decrees. 
These  depredations  were  made  the  subject  matter  of 
complaint  by  the  American  Government,  and  after 
much  negotiation  France  consented  to  pay  $5,000,000 
as  an  indemnity.  Payment,  however,  was  unreason 
ably  delayed,  until  in  1835  Jackson  demanded  a  settle 
ment  under  a  threat  of  reprisals  on  French  commerce, 
and  the  breaking  off  of  diplomatic  relations.  Louis 
Phillippe,  the  citizen  king,  understood  quite  well  the 
sternness  of  the  American  President,  and  in  a  little  while 
the  indemnity  was  forthcoming.  The  other  episode,  of 


88  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

which  we  shall  only  make  brief  mention,  was  the  Indian 
troubles  in  Florida  and  Alabama.  After  a  good  deal  of 
suffering  and  bloodshed,  they  were  brought  to  a  conclu 
sion  by  the  removal  of  the  Creeks  and  Seminoles  to  the 
Indian  reservation  west  of  the  Mississippi. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  Jacksonian  era  was  a  most 
eventful  period,  deserving  more  elaborate  treatment. 
It  ended  well,  however,  and  indeed  not  without  consid 
erable  eclat.  The  public  debt  was  entirely  extinguished, 
and  a  surplus  of  $40,  ooo,  ooo  was  lodged  in  the  national 
treasury. 

Jackson  may  be  said  to  have  designated  his  successor, 
and  then  quietly  retired  to  the  Hermitage  near  Nash 
ville,  Tennessee,  where  he  died  in  1845,  beloved  and 
honored  and  trusted  beyond  any  political  leader  since 
the  days  of  Washington,  who  will  ever  be  ''first  in  the 
hearts  of  his  countrymen." 


VAN  BUREN  AND    HIS   ADMINISTRATION.  89 


VAN  BUREN  AND  His  ADMINISTRATION, 


Mr.  Van  Buren,  whom  his  party  friends  delighted  to 
call  the  "Sage  of  Kinderhook,"  was  a  native  of  that 
ancient  Dutch  village  which  has  since  grown  to  a  city 
of  respectable  dimensions.  As  his  name  implies,  he 
was  a  descendant  of  some  of  the  early  settlers  who  fol 
lowed  up  the  discovery  of  Sir  Henry  Hudson,  one  of 
the  great  navigators  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

Mr.  Van  Buren  owed  his  nomination  and  election  to 
the  presidency  much  less  to  his  own  personal  following 
than  to  the  patronage  of  "the  hero  of  the  Hermitage." 
Through  all  the  stormy  and  eventful  scenes  of  the  Jack- 
sonian  era,  he  had  never  wavered  in  his  loyalty  to  that 
old  chieftain.  It  was,  therefore,  no  matter  of  surprise 
that  in  the  presidential  contest  of  1836  he  received 
every  electoral  vote  except  seventy  three,  which  were 
cast  for  General  Harrison,  South  Carolina's  vote,  which 
went  to  Mangum,  of  North  Carolina,  and  the  electoral 
votes  of  Georgia  and  Tennessee,  which  were  thrown 
to  Hugh  L.  White,  of  Tennessee. 

I  saw  him  twice  only,  once  as  he  peered  through  the 
window  of  a  Piedmont  stage  coach  on  his  Southern 
journey.  It  was  only  a  glimpse.  I  saw  him  a  second 
time  in  1851,  in  the  cabin  of  a  North  river  steamer, 


gO  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

which  plied  between  New  York  and  Albany.  I  could 
detect  nothing  sinister  in  the  expression  of  his  face  or 
in  the  tone  of  his  voice,  to  warrant  the  aspersion  of  his 
political  enemies  that  he  was  an  American  Talleyrand, 
or  to  justify  them  in  dubbing  him  the  '  'Little  Magician. " 
He  was,  perhaps,  as  shrewd  as  the  ex-bishop  of  Autum, 
but  was  neither  as  crafty  nor  as  unprincipled  in  his 
political  methods. 

He  was  placed  at  serious  disadvantage  by  the  fact 
that  he  was  the  immediate  presidential  successor  of 
Andrew  Jackson,  who  was  the  hero  of  two  or  more 
national  wars.  The  naked  truth  is,  that  without  any 
personal  default  his  administration  fell  on  evil  days 
and  evil  tongues.  The  oft-quoted  saying  that  his  pres 
idential  term  was  "a  parenthesis  in  our  national  history, 
that  might  be  read  in  a  low  tone  or  omitted  altogether 
without  affecting  the  sense,  is  a  statement  more  trench 
ant  than  it  is  truthful. 

Some  one  has  said  with  greater  charity  that  Van 
Buren's  administration  suffers  by  comparison  with 
others  because  it  was  an  "unheroic  period."  With  the 
exceptio'i  of  Indian  hostilities  that  first  developed  that 
superb  half-breed  Seminole  warrior,  Osceola,  who  was 
shamefully  seized  under  a  flag  of  truce,  and  now  lies  in 
an  undistinguished  grave  outside  the  walls  of  Fort 
Moultrie,  and  a  Quixotic  dash  on  the  Dominion  of  Can 
ada  that  was  speedily  squelched  by  Federal  troops, 
there  was  nothing  of  a  military  character  to  break  the 
monotony  of  the  times. 

That  it  was  a  period  of  unprecedented   commercial 


VAN   BUREN  AND    HIS  ADMINISTRATION.  9! 

disaster  is  unquestionable.  The  forty  millions  of  sur 
plus  in  the  treasury  towards  the  close  ot  Jackson's 
administration  was  unwisely,  and  perhaps  unwarrant 
ably  distributed  amongst  the  States.  It  stimulated 
reckless  speculation,  and  in  connection  with  the  specie 
circular,  it  had  sequestered  gold  and  silver  and  filled  the 
channels  of  trade  with  an  irredeemable  issue  of  paper 
currency. 

This  was  the  proximate  cause  of  that  condition  of 
threatened  bankruptcy  which  confronted  the  newly 
inaugurated  President  and  the  country  at  large  in  the 
first  months  of  the  Van  Buren  administration. 

Hardly  was  he  comfortably  seated  in  the  executive 
chair  before  he  was  urged  by  the  merchants  of  New 
York  and  other  Eastern  cities  to  rescind  the  specie  cir 
cular  and  to  convene  Congress  in  extra  session.  Mr. 
Van  Buren,  besides  being  a  stickler  for  "honest  money, " 
was  too  thoroughly  wedded  to  the  Jacksonian  policy  of 
divorcing  the  Government  from  the  banks  to  tamper 
with  the  former,  but  he  did  meet  public  expectation  in 
part  by  calling  an  extra  session. 

He  went  a  step  beyond  this,  for  in  September  of  that 
year  he  advised  Congress  to  provide  for  the  issuance  of 
ten  millions  in  treasury  notes  to  alleviate  the  existing 
distress.  But  his  favorite  financial  scheme  was  the  inde 
pendent  treasury,  otherwise  called  the  subtreasury.  It 
simply  provided  for  the  safe-keeping  and  disbursement 
of  the  public  funds  at  various  business  centers  It  cer 
tainly  never  contemplated  making  the  national  treasury 
a  "pawnbroker's  shop,"  where  80  per  cent,  was  ad- 


92  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

vanced  on  cotton,  corn  or  wheat  or  lesser  agricultural 
products. 

Mr.  Van  Buren's  idea  was  that  this  subtreasury  plan 
would  be  a  check  on  the  reckless  banking  and  yet  more 
reckless  speculation  which  had  already  brought  the 
country  to  the  verge  of  financial  ruin.  There  was, 
however,  very  formidable  opposition  to  this  policy,  and 
it  was  not  adopted  until  1840.  Since  that  period  it  has 
been  the  basis  of  our  national  financial  system. 

We  have  already  referred  in  general  terms  to  the 
prostrate  condition  of  our  national  industries  during  Mr. 
Van  Buren's  presidential  term.  Let  us  speak  more  in 
detail  and  more  from  personal  observation. 

In  the  grain-growing  districts  of  the  West  wheat  and 
corn  were  rotting  in  bins  and  cribs,  with  scarcely  any 
quotable  market  value.  The  surplus  grain  stuffs  were 
shut  out  from  the  English  market  by  the  corn  laws. 
Meanwhile  Barry  Cornwall  chanted  the  death  song  of 
that  protective  system,  but  not  till  gaunt  famine,  like  a 
ghastly  specter,  had  stalked  through  the  highways  and 
byways  of  England  and  Ireland. 

In  the  South  cotton  was  never  before  or  since  lower 
than  during  part  of  this  period.  In  New  Orleans,  the 
great  cotton  market  of  the  world,  there  were,  in  two 
days,  business  failures  amounting  to  nearly  thirty  mil 
lions  of  dollars.  This  beats,  by  heavy  odds,  the  Ryan 
failure,  which  has  been  the  talk  of  Atlanta  for  a  solid 
month. 

Banks  suspended  or  exploded  from  the  lakes  to  the 
gulf  with  a  crash  as  startling  as  the  "crack  of  doom." 


VAX   BUREN   AND   HIS   ADMINISTRATION.  93 

Values  of  all  kinds  were  greatly  depreciated.  I  saw 
stalwart  negro  bucks  sold  on  the  block  for  three  and 
four  hundred  dollars  that  in  better  times  brought  eight 
and  nine  hundred. 

The  currency  away  from  the  money  centers  consisted 
of  wildcat  bank  issues,  or  of  shin-plasters,  as  they  were 
queerly  denominated,  that  in  reality  were  mere  promis 
sory  notes  of  private  grocers  or  dry  goods  merchants.  I 
know  a  very  rich  gentleman  in  this  city  whose  father 
floated  a  large  amount  of  these  shin-plasters  and  sus 
tained  his  commercial  credit.  This  was  the  exception, 
most  of  these  issues  breaking  down  in  a  single  season. 

But  after  all,  the  worst  feature  of  these  times  was 
general  demoralization  in  the  matter  of  debt  paying. 

Stay  laws,  after  the  pattern  of  the  thirding  laws  of  a 
much  earlier  date,  were  enacted  by  State  Legislatures. 
The  constitutional  provision  forbidding  a  State  to  pass 
a  law  "impairing  the  obligation  of  a  contract,"  was 
either  evaded  or  trampled  under  foot.  On  one  occa 
sion,  the  precise  date  not  remembered,  I  saw  a  man, 
afterwards  prominent  in  politics,  cudgel  another  man  for 
bidding  at  a  sheriff's  sale — the  sheriff  for  prudential  rea 
sons  holding  his  peace.  In  some  communities  these 
judicial  sales  were  either  arrested  or  delayed — the  offi 
cers  of  the  law  being  terrorized  by  the  mob. 

This  state  of  things  obtained  with  slight  improvement 
until  the  Harrisburg  convention  named  its  candidates — 
William  Henry  Harrison,  of  Ohio,  the  reputed  slayer 
of  Tecumseh,  and  John  Tyler,  of  Virginia,  a  State  rights 
Whig.  The  platform  adopted  by  the  Whigs  was  skill- 


94  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

fully  adjusted  to  the  financial  condition  of  the  country. 
There  was  to  be  a  general  bankrupt  law,  embodying 
both  the  voluntary  and  involuntary  features.  This 
appeal  to  the  debtor  class,  who  were  largely  in  the 
ascendancy  throughout  the  nation,  caused  a  widespread 
enthusiasm. 

There  was  then  no  demand  for  the  "  free  coinage  of 
silver,"  for  that  metal  had  not  yet  been  demonetized  at 
the  behest  of  the  Wall  street  plutocrats. 

But  the  Whigs,  who  were  always  wise  in  their  gene 
ration,  had  "something  better"  still  to  offer  in  the 
shape  of  a  national  bank,  backed  by  the  credit  of  the 
General  Government.  By  this  measure  the  people  were 
to  realize  a  happy  riddance  of  the  fluctuating  currency 
furnished  by  the  State  banks.  These  two  measures 
were  the  winning  cards  in  the  pending  presidential 
campaign. 

The  Democratic  party  of  that  era  seemed  smitten  with 
judicial  blindness,  and  their  candidate,  Mr.  Van  Buren, 
was  overwhelmingly  defeated.  Harrison  received  234 
electoral  votes  and  Van  Buren  barely  sixty. 

Thus  the  national  party,  which  from  the  days  of  Jef 
ferson  had  exercised  undisputed  sway,  met  its  Waterloo 
in  the  campaign  of  1840. 

Of  which  dramatic  event  we  shall  have  something  to 
say  at  another  time. 


THE    HARRISON    CAMPAIGN    OF    1840.  95 


THE  HARRISON  CAMPAIGN  OF  1840, 


The  popular  uprising  in  the  presidential  campaign  of 
1840  was  not  unlike  the  present  Farmers'  Alliance 
movement,  without,  however,  its  grips  and  passwords. 
In  all  the  agricultural  districts  of  the  country  there  was 
then  much  real  or  apprehended  suffering.  The  leading 
products  of  the  farm,  as  we  have  previously  stated, 
hardly  had  any  quotable  market  value.  To  this  must 
be  added  the  stringency  of  the  money  market,  and  we 
have  not  a  few  of  the  conditions  which  have  precipi 
tated  on  the  country  at  this  time  the  Alliance  movement 
and  the  Ocala  platform. 

Harrison,  the  Whig  candidate,  was  trumpeted  as  the 
hero  of  Tippecanoe,  but  better  known  to  the  masses  as 
the  "Old  Farmer  of  North  Bend." 

A  fac  simile  of  the  log  cabin  in  which  he  lived  when 
Lieutenant  Governor  of  the  Northwestern  territory  was 
mounted  on  wheels,  gayly  decorated  with  miniature 
national  flags,  the  clapboard  roof  ornamented  with  coon- 
skins,  whilst  strings  of  red  pepper  and  a  long-handled 
gourd  dangled  from  the  doorposts.  The  string  of  the 
doorlatch  was  conspicuously  on  the  outside,  as  an 
emblem  of  the  proverbial  hospitality  of  the  farmer. 

On  all  big  occasions,  such  as  barbecues,  the  log  cabin 
with  its  trimmings,  drawn  by  Kentucky-raised  mules, 


96  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

and  driven  by  a  happy-looking  plantation  darkey,  was 
in  place.  It  was  an  interesting  picturesque  scene,  not 
in  the  shape  of  high  art,  but  in  such  shape  as  best 
caught  the  eye  and  best  tickled  the  fancy  of  the  multi 
tude.  Campaign  songs,  perhaps  the  model  of  later 
negro  minstrels,  enlivened  the  occasion  and  roused  the 
utmost  enthusiasm.  It  may  be  soberly  said  that  from 
the  banks  of  the  Aristook  to  the  borders  of  the  new 
born  republic  of  Texas,  the  country  had  gone  wild,  if 
not  crazy,  with  political  excitement. 

We  doubt  if  any  single  publication  of  the  campaign 
contributed  more  to  the  success  of  the  Whigs  than  a 
statistical  speech  of  Congressman  Old,  of  Pennsylvania. 
The  speech  was  devoted  chiefly  to  an  elaborate  inven 
tory  of  the  furnishings  of  the  White  House.  The  gold 
spoons  and  silver  knives  and  forks — the  expensive  car 
peting — the  costly  dinner  and  tea  sets — the  wine  cellars 
filled  with  high-priced  wine — the  extravagance  of  every 
kind — was  noted  and  numbered.  All  this  vast  outlay 
for  the  comfort  of  Van  Buren,  the  occupant  of  the 
White  House,  whilst  the  "Old  Farmer  of  North  Bend" 
ate  corn  dodgers  and  drank  hard  cider,  and  the  nation 
itself  trembled  on  the  verge  of  bankruptcy. 

Pamphlet  copies  of  the  speech  were  sown  broadcast 
and  knee-deep  through  the  states  and  territories. 

The  effect  was  tremendous,  and  the  movement,  which 
savored  strongly  of  demagogism,  developed  into  a  polit 
ical  landslide. 

In  Georgia,  which  refused  to  vote  for  Van  Buren  in 
1836,  it  was  a  one-sided  affair.  Three  of  the  ablest 


THE    HARRISON    CAMPAIGN    OF    1840.  97 

leaders  of  the  old  State-rights'  party — Colquitt,  Cooper 
and  Black — abandoned  their  party  allegiance  and  went 
over  to  the  Van  Buren  administration.  But  this  was 
but  a  ripple  on  the  surface.  The  bulk  of  the  Whigs, 
who  from  the  times  of  Troup  and  the  treaty,  had  been 
against  what  was  known  as  the  Union  party,  stood  by 
their  colors  and  were  heavily  reinforced  from  the  ranks 
of  the  former  opposition. 

One  of  the  greatest  Whig  rallies  of  the  campaign  in 
Western  Georgia  was  at  Hamilton,  Harris  county.  Not 
only  the  people  of  that  county,  but  hundreds  from 
Troup,  Meriwether,  Muscogee  and  Talbot  counties,  and 
a  large  mounted  delegation  from  Chambers  county,  Ala 
bama,  were  in  attendance.  The  speakers  were  Hutch- 
inson  and  Hilliard,  from  Montgomery,  Ala.,  Sam  Flour- 
noy,  from  Columbus,  and  Julius  Q.  C.  Alford,  from  La- 
Grange  To  give  greater  eclat  to  the  occasion,  a  mili 
tary  band  was  brought  from  Columbus. 

The  speaking  at  the  grandstand  was  of  the  best,  and 
the  enthusiasm  was  immense.  Dr.  David  Cooper,  the 
father  of  Mrs.  Col.  N.  C.  Barnett,  was  a  Whig,  warp 
and  filling,  and  was  conspicuous  in  that  vast  audience 
by  his  stately  figure  and  his  hearty  applause  of  the 
good  points  scored  by  the  several  orators.  Col.  Wililam 
C.  Osborn,  of  Hamilton,  and  his  brother,  Geo.  Osborn, 
of  Waverly  Hall,  the  Parleys,  the  Walkers,  the  Mob- 
leys,  the  Crawfords,  the  Pitts,  and  a  host  of  other  old 
Whigs  were  jubilant. 

My  first  newspaper  correspondence  was  a  report  of 


98  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

that  meeting  to  John  Forsyth's  paper,    The  Columbus 
Times. 

This  Whig  barbecue  was  but  a  specimen  brick.  All 
through  the  State  and  throughout  the  country  similar 
scenes  were  enacted 

It  is  not  singular  that  when,  on  the  kalends  of  No 
vember,  the  ballots  were  counted,  "Tip  and  Ty"  were 
found  to  have  won  the  heat  by  several  lengths,  Van 
Buren  barely  reaching  the  distance  post. 

On  the  4th  of  March,  1841,  General  Harrison  was 
inaugurated  President,  and  John  Tyler,  of  Virginia, 
vice-President. 

The  administration  started  under  bright  auspices,  but 
in  one  month,  4th  of  April,  the  President  died,  the  old 
hero  expiring  before  the  acclamations  which  hailed  his 
inauguration  had  passed  away.  His  death,  however, 
did  not  occur  until  after  he  had  issued  an  executive 
proclamation  convening  Congress  in  extra  session,  on 
the  ist  of  May.  The  principal  reason  assigned  in  the 
proclamation  for  this  unusual  procedure  was  the  disor 
dered  condition  of  the  finances  of  the  country. 

President  Tyler  took  the  oath  of  office  on  the  6th  of 
April,  two  days  after  General    Harrison's  death,   and, 
for  the  time  being  everything  went  smoothly  and  pros 
perously  with  the  new  regime. 

With  the  assembling  of  the  extra  session  it  was  evi 
dent  that  there  was  discordant  elements  in  the  triumph 
ant  party. 

There  was  no  hitch  in  the  proposed  bankrupt  law, 
which  gave  great  relief  to  the  large  debtor  class  of  the 


THE    HARRISON    CAMPAIGN    OF     1840.  99 

country.  But  the  project  for  re-chartering  the  National 
Bank  met  with  considerable  disfavor,  even  amongst  the 
friends  of  the  administration. 

President  Tyler,  who  was  a  Virginia  statesman  of  the 
old  school,  was  not  prepared  to  accept  the  doubtful 
policy  of  re-establishing  an  institution  that  originated 
with  Alexander  Hamilton,  and  which,  during  the  forty 
years  of  its  existence,  had  produced  grave  political  com 
plications. 

His  personal  opposition  to  a  national  bank  was  an 
open  secret  during  the  late  presidential  campaign.  But 
his  party  friends  cherished  the  hope  that  he  would  ac 
quiesce  to  the  expressed  will  of  a  congressional  major 
ity.  This  he  relused  to  do  on  two  several  occasions, 
and  as  the  majority  could  not  command  a  two  thirds 
\ote  the  bank  charter  failed. 

Then  followed,  as  might  be  supposed,  a  disruption  of 
the  Whig  organization.  The  Harrison  cabinet  resigned 
in  a  body,  with  the  single  exception  of  Mr.  Webster, 
who  retained  his  position  with  a  view  to  the  settlement 
of  the  northeastern  boundary  question  with  England. 
It  is  a  singular  fact  that  neither  the  treaty  of  Versailles 
nor  the  treaty  of  Ghent  adjusted  this  boundary  ques 
tion.  For  sixty  years  its  indeterminateness  was  a  per 
petual  menace  to  the  international  relations  of  both 
countries.  Lord  Ashburton  and  Mr.  Webster  fixed  the 
boundary  to  the  satisfaction  of  all  concerned. 

During  the  second  year  of  the  Tyler  administration, 
1848,  the  Dorr  insurrection  came  to  a  head  in  the  little 
State  of  Rhode  Island.  For  nearly  two  hundred  years 


IOO  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

the  charter  granted  by  Charles  II.  to  the  trustees  of 
Rhode  Island  and  Providence  plantations  was  the  or 
ganic  law  of  that  commonwealth. 

The  property  qualification  demanded  of  voters  had 
been  obnoxious  to  the  poorer  classes  for  many  years, 
and  it  was  the  repeal  of  this  feature  that  Thomas  W. 
Dorr  made  the  basis  of  his  revolutionary  procedure. 
The  strife  between  the  "suffrage"  and  the  "law  and 
order"  party  culminated  in  riot  and  bloodshed.  Nor 
was  the  disturbance  quieted  until  Federal  troops  were 
placed  at  the  disposal  of  Governor  King. 

Dorr  left  the  State,  but  was  afterwards  tried  and  con 
victed  of  treason.  He  remained  in  prison  for  two  or 
more  years,  and  then  was  unconditionally  released. 

Another  intestine  trouble  that  threatened  the  peace 
of  the  country  was  anti-rent  disturbances  in  several 
counties  of  New  York.  In  Delaware,  Renssalaer  and 
Columbia  counties  the  great  body  of  the  farmers  held 
only  household  estates,  for  the  occupancy  of  which  they 
paid  such  pepper-corn  rents  as  a  day's  work  or  a  bushel 
of  oats.  But  some  of  them  had  become  weary  of  this 
relic  of  the  old  Dutch  patroonship,  and  hundreds  of  them 
refused  to  pay  the  custom  any  rental.  Not  satisfied 
with  this,  they  prohibited  other  tenants,  who  were  dif 
ferently  disposed,  from  paying  their  rents  under  penalty 
of  being  tarred  and  feathered.  In  Delaware  county 
these  riotous  proceedings  became  frequent  and  flagrant; 
so  much  so,  indeed,  that  Governor  Silas  Wright 
declared  the  county  in  a  state  of  insurrection,  and 


THE    HARRISON    CAMPAIGN    OF    1840.  IOI 

ordered  out  the  militia  to  suppress  it.  This  display  of 
the  mailed  hand  soon  brought  order  out  of  confusion. 

The  Mormon  troubles  in  Illinois  were  another  feature 
of  Tyler's  administration.  They  were  provoked  by 
popular  alarm  at  the  rapid  spread  of  this  nineteenth  cen 
tury  delusion.  After  milder  methods  had  failed  to 
arrest  its  progress,  a  mob  broke  the  jail  at  Carthage, 
where  Joseph  Smith,  the  Mormon  prophet,  and  his 
brother  Hiram  were  imprisoned,  and  assassinated  them 
in  cold  blood. 

Shortly  thereafter  they  fired  the  Mormon  temple  at 
Nauvoo,  an  act  of  incendiarism  as  unwarrantable  as  the 
burning  of  a  Catholic  convent  during  the  no-popery 
riots  in  Boston,  and  the  later  destruction  of  three  Cath 
olic  churches  during  the  Know-nothing  riots  in  Philadel 
phia. 

The  Mormons  set  forth  in  a  few  months  for  their 
present  home  in  Utah,  where  they  now  number  nearly 
two  hundred  thousand. 

One  event,  far  less  dramatic  than  those  we  have  just 
glanced  at,  was  pre  eminently  the  crowning  glory  of  this 
presidential  term.  We  refer  to  the  first  notable  success 
of  the  magnetic  telegraph  In  May,  1844,  the  National 
Democratic  Convention  met  in  Baltimore,  and,  alter  sev 
eral  ballotings,  nominated  James  K.  Polk  for  President 
and  George  M.  Dallas  for  Vice- President.  ••  Thtj  news 
ol  this  nomination  was  instantly  transmitted  to  .Wash 
ington  by  the  Morse  telegraph.  This  was  the  first  mes 
sage  that  went  over  the  wires  to  any  considerable  dis 
tance,  and  its  safe  transmission  lifted  a  mountain  load 


IO2  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

from  the  heart  of  Prof.  Morse,  who  had  been  for  years 
the  football  of  fickle  fortune  and  the  sport  of  vulgar 
wittings. 

This  message  was  the  signal  given  for  the  opening  of 
the  most  remarkable  political  campaign  during  the  first 
century  of  our  national  existence.  It  was  the  Derby 
contest  of  the  presidential  Newmarket.  Clay,  the  Whig 
candidate,  was,  in  some  respects,  the  noblest  Roman  of 
them  all.  Theodore  Frelinghuysen,  the  vice-presiden 
tial  candidate,  was  the  President  of  the  American  Bible 
Society,  and,  aside  from  that,  was  a  purely  negative 
quantity. 

Polk,  the  Democratic  candidate,  was  an  ex-Speaker 
of  the  House,  a  protege  of  Jackson,  and  a  thoroughly 
practical  statesman.  George  M.  Dallas  was  a  good 
second,  which  led  some  wag  to  say  that  it  was  a  kanga 
roo  ticket,  with  its  main  strength  in  its  hind  legs. 

The  next  few  months  were  resonant  with  the  boom 
ing  of  the  big  guns  of  the  platform  and  the  war  cries  of 
the  rank  and  file  of  the  two  great  parties. 

The  annexation  of  Texas  overshadowed  the  subordi 
nate  issues  of  bank,  tariff  and  internal  improvements. 

It  was  in  this  connection  that  Judge  Colquitt  used  to 
tell  his  famous  story  of  the  "Texas  filly,"  which  he 
claimed  had  more  bottom  than  "Eclipse,"  and  better 
speed  than  "Flying  Childers. " 

When  Colquitt  brought  in  this  illustration  of  the 
immense  popularity  of  the  annexation  plank  of  the 
Democratic  platform,  the  Whigs  squirmed  and  the  Dem 
ocrats  yelled. 


THE    HARRISON   CAMPAIGN    OF    1840.  1 03 

The  result  of  this  contest  was  that  Mr.  Clay  was 
shelved,  and  ceased  to  be  a  presidential  possibility. 

Not  only  so,  but  a  bill  for  the  annexation  of  Texas, 
out  of  deference  to  the  popular  will  as  expressed  at  the 
ballot  box,  was  passed  in  the  closing  week  of  the  Tyler 
administration.  We  shall  have  more  to  say  of  the  les 
sons  of  this  grand  campaign  when  v\e  come  to  speak  of 
the  Polk  and  Dallas  administration. 


IO4  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR  PERIOD, 


We  have  elsewhere  said  that  the  presidential  cam 
paign  of  Clay  and  Polk,  in  1844,  was  the  Derby  con 
test  ol  our  national  Newmarket.  While  it  was  neither 
so  picturesque  nor  so  boisterous  as  the  "Tip  and  Ty  " 
struggle  of  1840,  it  was  by  no  means  wanting  in  politi 
cal  enthusiasm.  It  was,  in  a  measure,  inaugurated  by 
Mr.  Clay's  Southern  tour  in  the  early  spring  of  that 
most  memorable  year.  That  was  the  first,  and,  indeed, 
last  occasion  on  which  I  saw  the  gallant  "Harry  of  the 
West,"  and  from  the  platform  heard  him  address  an 
audience  of  20,000  people  with  characteristic  force  and 
eloquence.  So  thrilling  were  some  passages  of  his 
speech  that  they  elicited  outbursts  of  applause  that 
almost  threatened  to  rend  the  welkin. 

If  personal  magnetism  had  been  the  dominant  issue, 
the  illustrious  Kentuckian  would  have  had  a  walk  over. 
But  there  were  economic  questions,  such  as  tariff  revis 
ion  and  reduction,  which  challenged  public  attention 
and  largely  influenced  the  popular  verdict.  Beyond  all 
else,  however,  the  annexation  question  was  one  that  not 
only  appealed  to  the  Southern  heart,  but  likewise  to  an 
American  sentiment  wherever  the  stars  and  stripes 
wantoned  with  the  breeze  or  shimmered  in  the  mellow 
sunlight.  So  strong  was  this  sentiment  that  weeks  and 


THE    MEXICAN    WAR    PERIOD.  IQj 

months  before  the  ballots  were  cast  the  election  of  Polk 
and  Dallas  was  assured. 

At  this  point  a  brief  allusion  to  the  Texan  revolution 
will  help  us  to  appreciate  the  vast  popularity  of  this 
annexation  plank  of  the  Democratic  platform.  The 
struggle  for  Texan  independence  began  in  good  earnest 
with  the  battle  of  Gonzales  in  1835,  and,  alter  alarming 
fluctuations,  closed  with  the  decisive  battle  of  San  Jacin- 
to  in  April,  1856.  On  this  historic  field  independence 
was  achieved  and  the  butchery  of  the  Alamo  was  sig 
nally  avenged  by  the  route  of  the  Mexican  army  and 
the  subsequent  capture  of  its  leader,  Santa  Anna,  who 
lost  a  leg  and  a  sword  in  the  conflict.  The  leg,  we 
believe,  was  buried  with  the  honors  of  war.  The  sword 
was,  some  years  ago,  in  possession  of  our  old  friend, 
Dr.  Borders,  of  Polk  county,  the  father-in  law  of  Con 
gressman  Everett.  Dr.  Richardson,  of  this  city,  in 
forms  me  that  Dr.  Borders  has  been  offered  by  Texas  a 
large  tract  of  land  for  the  sword,  but  refuses  to  part  with 
the  relic. 

This  brilliant  victory  at  San  Jacinto  was  shortly  after 
wards  followed  by  the  recognition  of  Texan  independ 
ence  by  the  United  States,  Great  Britain  and  France, 
and  the  "Lone  Star  Republic  "  was  admitted  to  the  fel 
lowship  of  the  older  nations.  During  the  Van  Buren 
administration  the  Texan  government,  through  its  min 
ister  at  Washington,  asked  to  be  incorporated  into  the 
Federal  Union.  This  quite  natural  desire  was  not  then 
granted,  because  Mr.  Van  Buren  feared  that  it  might 
lead  to  graver  political  complications  with  Mexico. 


IO6  HISTORICAL   AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

Events  were  not  yet  ripe  for  this  "  devoutly  wished- 
for  consummation."  All  through  the  Harrison  and 
Tyler  regime  the  issue  was  kept  in  abeyance  until  the 
campaign  of  1844,  v.hen  it  became  an  American  ques 
tion  of  supreme  urgency. 

When  Mr.  Polk  was  inaugurated  the  marriage  union 
between  the  sister  republics  had  already  been  solem 
nized,  not  by  a  treaty,  the  usual  stipulations,  but  by  a 
joint  resolution  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representa 
tives,  approved  by  the  President.  One  of  the  first 
duties  of  the  new  administration  was  to  execute  the  law, 
and  yet  it  was  confronted  at  the  very  threshold  by  a 
boundary  dispute  with  Mexico.  Texas  rightfully  claimed 
that  her  western  boundary  extended  to  the  Rio  Grande. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  Mexican  government,  with 
Parade:?  at  its  head,  disputed  the  claim,  contending  that 
the  Neuces  River  was  the  proper  western  limit  of  Texas, 
for  the  reason  that  the  territory  lying  between  the  two 
rivers  appertained  to  the  State  of  Coahua,  which  had 
never  shaken  off  its  allegiance  to  the  mother  country. 

There  was  a  semblance  of  right  in  this  claim,  and  the 
American  Government  suggested  that  it  be  made  the 
subject  of  negotiation  looking  to  a  fair  adjustment  on 
some  money  basis. 

Parades,  the  Mexican  President,  spurned  the  proposal, 
and  began  massing  a  large  body  of  troops  on  the  Rio 
Grande.  Thereupon,  at  the  request  of  the  Texas  au 
thorities,  our  Government  ordered  Colonel  Zachary  Tay 
lor,  a  celebrity  of  the  Seminole  war,  to  proceed  with 


THE    MEXICAN    WAR    PERIOD.  IO/ 

2,000  men  to  Corpus  Christi,  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Neuces,  and  establish  at  that  or  some  other  suitable 
point  a  depot  of  supplies. 

This  brings  us  to  the  first  act  of  the  Mexican  war 
drama,  the  events  of  which  constitute  one  of  the  bright 
est  chapters  in  our  rational  annals. 

From  the  first  battle  at  Palo  Alto,  May,  1846,  where 
Major  Ringgold,  a  gallant  Marylander,  poured  out  his 
heart's  bood  as  a  libation  to  the  goddess  of  American 
liberty,  to  the  day  General  Scott  made  his  triumphal 
entry  into  the  city  of  the  Montezumas,  it  was  one  un 
broken  series  of  victories.  While  it  would  be  weari 
some  to  speak  of  the  minor  details  ot  this  more  than 
two  years  of  invasion,  it  is  eminently  proper  to  notice 
the  grander  movements  conducted  by  Taylor  and  Scott, 
who  had  an  equal  share  in  the  honors  of  the  struggle. 

The  first  stage  of  the  conflict  culminated  in  the  seiz 
ure  of  Monterey  in  September,  1846,  and  in  the  crush 
ing  defeat  of  Santa  Anna  and  his  forces  at  Buena  Vista 
in  February  of  the  ensuing  year. 

It  was  in  this  contest,  against  heavy  odds,  that  our 
volunteer  soldiery  demonstrated  their  admirable  fighting 
qualities  and  forever  silenced  the  slander  that  they  were 
mere  carpet  knights  unfitted  for  the  tug  of  war.  It  was 
on  this  field  that  our  own  immortal  Davis,  who  had  won 
his  earliest  laurels  when  a  junior  lieutenant  in  the  Black 
Hawk  war,  received  imperishable  renown  by  his  skill 
ful  maneuvering  and  the  stubborn  valor  of  his  Missis 
sippi  Riflemen  in  the  crisis  of  the  conflict. 

As  to  his  peculiar  regimental  formation   it  was  not  a 


Io8  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

novelty  invented  for  the  occasion,  but  well  known  and 
often  practiced  amongst  the  ancient  Greeks. 

By  an  order  from  headquarters  the  Taylor  movement 
was  arrested  at  Saltillo,  a  small  town  beyond  Buena 
Vista. 

Santa  Anna  was  in  full  retreat  to  the  City  of  Mexico, 
and  a  considerable  number  of  Taylor's  troops  were 
ordered  to  reinforce  Scott's  command,  which,  having 
forced  the  capitulation  of  that  most  formidable  fortress 
San  Juan  D'Ulloa,  was  marching  at  no  leisurely  pace 
from  Vera  Cruz  upon  the  enemy's  capital.  We  have 
always  been  somewhat  incredulous  of  Prescott's  story 
of  the  conquest  of  Mexico  by  Hernando  Cortez.  But 
that  wonderful  feat,  performed  by  a  handful  of  Spanish 
cavaliers,  with  the  help  of  the  native  Tlascalans,  who 
had  revolted  against  Montezuma,  was  more  than 
equaled  by  Scott  and  his  gallant  army.  From  Cerro 
Gordo,  Marion,  rocky  mountain  pass,  where  the  Mexi 
cans  made  their  first  bold  stand  ;  to  Puebla,  to  Contreras, 
where  Butler  and  his  Palmetto  regiment  showed  them 
selves  worthy  descendents  of  Mexico  and  Sumter; 
through  Churubusco  to  the  Castle  of  Chapultepec,  from 
whose  flagstaff  our  own  William  S.  Walker,  then  a 
Colonel  of  Volunteers,  unfurled  the  American  flag, 
thence  on  to  the  gates  of  the  city,  which  they  stormed 
by  a  bayonet  charge,  and  then  to  the  halls  of  the 
Montezumas.  Scott's  army  of  the  center  made  no  halt, 
but  literally  went  from  "  conquering  to  conquer."  We 
venture  to  say  that  neither  in  Caesar's  "  Commen 
taries,"  nor  in  Xenophon's  "Anabasis,"  nor  yet  in 


THE    MEXICAN    WAR    PERIOD.  109 

Napoleon's  Italian  campaign  is  there  a  military  record 
more  brilliant  than  this  of  our  American  army.  It  was 
in  this  school  that  Lee  and  Jackson  and  Grant  and 
Sherman  and  Joe  Johnston  were  trained  for  their 
grander  achievements  in  the  late  civil  war. 

While  Scott  was  fighting  his  way  to  the  City  of 
Mexico,  smaller  detachments  of  the  army  and  navy,  led 
by  Commodore  Stockton,  Doniphan,  Price  and  Fre 
mont  were  seizing  and  occupying  the  strategic  points  of 
New  Mexico  and  California.  The  Mexicans,  beaten 
from  every  position,  were  ready  to  accept  the  best 
terms  the  conqueror  might  be  willing  to  grant. 

These  terms,  as  embodied  in  the  treaty  of  Guada- 
loupe  Hidalgo,  were  generous,  even  magnanimous,  as 
was  befitting  the  American  Government.  And  yet,  as 
the  fruits  of  the  conquest,  she  acquired  an  empire  in 
riches  and  extent,  but  at  the  cost  of  much  blood  and 
no  inconsiderable  treasure. 

And  yet  sectional  issues,  growing  out  of  these  acqui 
sitions,  very  soon  began  to  embroil  the  whole  country. 
Scarcely  had  the  treaty  been  signed  until  the  ghostly 
specter  of  discord,  threatening  the  disruption  of  the 
Union,  appeared  in  the  Wilmot  proviso.  Freesoilism, 
as  the  latest  phrase  of  abolitionism,  became  a  promi 
nent  factor  in  national  politics 

In  the  presidential  election  of  1848,  Martin  Van 
Buren  was  brought  forward  as  the  leader  of  this  faction, 
but  the  popularity  of  Taylor  and  Cass,  the  Whig  and 
Democratic  candidates,  held  together  the  old  parties, 


I  IO  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

and  Mr.  Van  Buren  was  a  second  time  distanced  on  the 
political  race  course. 

Two  measures  of  vast  importance  were  consummated 
ir  the  midst  of  these  war  disturbances.  In  its  remoter 
bearings,  the  principal  of  these  was  the  settlement  of 
the  northwestern  boundary  between  British  America 
and  the  United  States. 

For  a  time  the  masses  of  the  people  of  both  parties 
clamored  for  the  parallel  of  54.40.  But  the  English 
government  planted  itself  squarely  and  in  a  belligerent 
attitude  on  the  4Qth  parallel.  Our  Mexican  embroglio 
in  a  degree  handicapped  the  administration.  But  what 
finally  induced  the  concession  to  the  English  was  a  con 
viction  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Calhoun  and  a  large  conserv 
ative  following  that  an  increase  of  territory  in  that 
direction  would  effectually  destroy  the  equilibrium  of 
the  two  sections  between  whom  there  really  then 
existed  but  an  armed  truce.  It  was  in  this  congres 
sional  fight  that  Henry  W.  Hilliard,  another  honored 
Atlantian,  fleshed  his  maiden  sword.  This  settlement 
produced  a  vast  outcry  in  the  anti-slavery  ranks,  some 
of  their  leaders  denouncing  it  as  an  infamous  betrayal 
of  our  just  claim  in  the  interest  of  the  Southern  slave- 
holding  barons. 

This,  however,  was  the  merest  partisanship,  as  Eng 
land  had  never  claimed  less  than  was  finally  yielded  to 
her.  Hardly  secondary  to  this  boundary  question  was 
the  revision  and  readjustment  of  the  tariff  in  conformity 
to  the  compromise  of  1833. 

The   whole  protection    theory  was  at  war  with   the 


THE    MEXICAN    WAR    PERIOD.  I  I  I 

letter  and  spirit  of  the  Constitution,  and  yet,  notwith 
standing  the  backset  which  it  received  in  1846,  the  tax 
payers  of  the  country  are  still  in  the  clutches  of  this 
terrible  octopus. 

While  we  are  writing  McKinley  is  making  his  canvass 
on  the  basis  of  the  proposition,  either  express  or  im 
plied,  that  a  duty  collected  at  the  custom  house  is  not 
ultimately  paid  by  the  American  consumer,  but  by  the 
foreign  producers.  •  To  this  Mr.  Blaine,  the  great  cham 
pion  of  reciprocity,  by  his  indorsement  of  McKinley, 
virtually  assents.  How  are  the  mighty  fallen,  when 
Blaine  can  stultify  himself  after  this  fashion  !  Better 
creep  into  his  grave  or  become  a  tidewaiter,  than,  for  the 
sake  of  a  cabinet  place,  to  be  a  party  to  such  a  palpable 
travesty  on  statesmanship! 

It  was  during  the  Polk  administration  that  the  princely 
gift  of  Mr.  Smithson,  an  Englishman,  to  the  United 
States  Government  of  more  than  a  half  million  dollars 
began  to  be  utilized  in  the  interest  of  science.  Under 
the  rectorship  of  Professor  Joseph  Henry,  formerly  of 
Princeton  College,  the  work  has  gone  forward,  resulting 
in  the  accumulation  of  a  splendid  cabinet  of  minerals,  a 
large  collection  of  curios  and  relics,  and  a  laboratory 
with  a  splendid  chemical  equipment.  We  have  seen  it 
stated  that  there  has  recently  been  published  "Smith 
sonian  Contributions  to  Science,"  in  thirty  octavo  vol 
umes. 

On  another  line,  the  administration  of  Polk  was  made 
memorable  by  the  gold  discoveries  of  California. 
Thousands  of  men,  chieHy  American  citizens,  flocked 


112  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

to  the  Pacific  coast  in  quest  of  the  precious  metal. 
For  a  season  it  amounted  almost  to  the  sacta  fames  auri 
of  the  Latin  poet,  or  in  the  more  expressive  language  of 
the  time,  it  reached  the  proportions  of  a  craze. 

It  was  once  feared  that  the  market  value  of  gold 
would  be  seriously  affected  by  these  mining  operations, 
but  the  supply  has  long  since  diminished  and  these 
apprehensions  have  died  out. 

In  1848  the  Whigs  took  time  by  the  forelock  and 
nominated  General  Zachary  Taylor,  of  Louisiana,  for 
the  Presidency,  and  Millard  Fillmore,  of  New  York, 
for  the  Vice-Presidency. 

General  Taylor  had  but  little  knowledge  of  states 
manship,  but  he  was  an  incorruptible  patriot,  who  was 
widely  known  and  greatly  honored  as  the  hero  of  Okee- 
chobee  in  the  Seminole  war  and  the  illustrious  victor  at 
Buena  Vista.  The  nomination  was  hailed  everywhere 
with  an  enthusiasm  that  foreshadowed  a  Whig  victory. 

Mr.  Polk  failed  to  receive  a  renomination  from  his 
party,  it  being  thought  advisable  to  select  a  Northern 
man  for  the  Presidency.  The  choice  of  the  convention 
fell  on  General  Lewis  Cass,  a  man  of  great  probity  of 
character,  with  a  fair  record,  both  as  a  warrior  and 
statesman. 

The  nomination  of  General  Butler,  of  Kentucky,  for 
the  Vice-Presidency,  added  something  to  the  strength 
of  the  Democratic  ticket,  especially  in  the  West. 

Mr.  Van  Buren's  candidacy  on  the  Free-soil  ticket 
drew  from  the  two  national  parties  in  about  an  equal 


THE    MEXICAN    WAR    PERIOD.  113 

ratio,  so  that  the  general  result  was  but  slightly  affected 
by  this  third  party  movement. 

Taylor  and  Fillmore  were  chosen  by  a  considerable 
majority  of  the  electoral  votes,  and  on  the  4th  of  March, 
1849,  they  were  both  inaugurated  without  any  note 
worthy  incident. 

President  Polk  retired  from  his  high  office  with  an 
unblemished  reputation,  and  much  honored  and  beloved 
by  the  great  body  of  his  fellow  countrymen.  In  like 
manner  Vice-President  Dallas  had  won  the  respect  and 
confidence  of  the  country,  but  neither  of  these  excel 
lent  officials  had  those  characteristics  which  rouse  popu 
lar  enthusiasm. 


I  14  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 


THE  COMPROMISE  OF  1850, 


The  story  of  Erostratus,  who  "fired  the  Ephesian 
fane,"  is  one  of  the  most  thrilling  episodes  of  ancient 
history. 

So,  likewise,  during  the  pendency  of  the  Mexican 
war  period,  one  David  Wilmot,  a  most  incapable  Penn 
sylvania  Congressman,  hurled  a  flaming  firebrand  into 
our  national  politics,  which  ultimately  consumed  the 
grander  temple  of  American  constitutional  liberty. 

This  incendiary  act  preceded  by  more  than  two  years 
the  ratification  of  the  treaty  of  Guadaloupe  Hidalgo. 
By  that  treaty  our  Government  acquired  an  immense 
territory,  stretching  across  the  Rockies  to  the  shores  of 
the  Pacific.  In  the  light  of  subsequent  events  it  was 
dearly  purchased,  at  the  expense  of  a  political  confla 
gration  that  swept  the  country,  the  ashes  of  which  arc 
still  warm  beneath  our  tread. 

This  "  Wilmot  proviso,"  which  was  defeated  upon  its 
first  presentation  in  the  Mouse  of  Representatives,  was 
the  signal  gun  of  the  great  civil  war.  Twenty  five  years 
before,  the  slavery  agitation,  as  respected  the  national 
territory,  had  been  laid  to  rest  by  the  Missouri  Compro 
mise.  According  to  the  spirit,  if  not  the  very  letter  of 
that  adjustment,  the  parallel  of  36.30  should  have  been 
extended  through  these  later  territorial  acquisitions. 


THE    COMPROMISE    OF    1850.  115 

But  Mr.  VVilmot,  with  that  punic  faith  which  has 
always  characterized  his  tribe,  proposed  by  a  congres 
sional  enactment  to  exclude  the  Southern  people,  with 
their  slave  property,  from  this  whole  territory.  This, 
too,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  it  had  been  chiefly 
acquired  by  Southern  troops  under  the  leadership  of 
Southern  commanders. 

But  beyond  this  we  do  not  care  to  speak  of  that  pro 
viso.  We  arc  more  concerned  at  present  to  speak  of 
the  great  compromise  of  1850,  which  was  the  supreme 
effort  of  conservative  statesmanship  to  eliminate  sec 
tional  issues  from  American  politics. 

This  was  in  no  dubious  sense  the  specific  work  of  the 
Tyler  and  Fillmore  administrations. 

In  December,  1849,  at  San  Jose,  the  people  of  Cali 
fornia  organized  a  State  Government,  under  a  Constitu 
tion  prohibitory  of  slavery.  At  the  same  time  they  for 
warded  a  petition  to  Congress  for  their  admission  to  the 
dignity  of  statehood.  This  petition  elicited  a  memo 
rable  debate,  in  which  the  great  lights  of  the  American 
Senate — Clay,  Calhoun  and  Webster — were  quite  natu 
rally  most  conspicuous. 

Mr.  Calhoun,  we  believe,  in  February,  1850,  caused 
to  be  read  by  his  Senatorial  colleague  a  masterly  speech 
in  defense  of  Southern  rights.  It  was  in  the  best  spirit, 
as  was  befitting  the  dignity  of  the  forum  and  his  own 
eminent  statesmanship.  And  now  his  political  career 
was  ended,  and  he  retired  gracefully  from  the  arena  of 
his  former  triumphs. 

In  March  following,  Mr.  Webster  delivered  the  grand- 


Il6  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

est  oration  of  his  life.  He  rose  far  above  the  level  of  a 
vulgar  partisanship,  and  not  a  few  of  his  utterances  were 
like  the  echoes  ot  Sinaitic  thunder,  when  even  Moses 
quaked  and  feared  exceedingly. 

He  appealed  to  his  own  native  New  England  for  the 
exercise  of  a  broader  patriotism,  with  a  glow  of  fancy 
and  a  sweep  of  thought  that  challenged  the  admiration 
of  the  civilized  world.  He,  too,  lik^  Calhoun  and  Clay, 
was  nearing  immortality,  and  yet  for  these  words,  that 
were  inspirational  in  their  loftiness  of  conception  and 
sublimity  of  patriotic  purpose,  he  was  shut  out  from 
Faneual  hall,  the  boasted  cradle  of  American  liberty. 

Matters  had  reached  a  crisis  when,  on  May  6th,  Mr. 
Clay  himself  appeared  for  the  last  time  in  his  favorite 
role  of  the  "great  pacificator,"  as  chairman  of  a  com 
mittee  of  thirteen,  selected  to  prepare  a  basis  of  settle 
ment  for  all  the  sectional  issues  growing  out  of  our 
recent  acquisitions  of  territory. 

The  first  section  of  the  bill,  better  known  as  the  Om 
nibus  Bill,  assured  to  Texas  the  right  to  organize  four 
States  out  of  her  territory,  with  or  without  slavery,  as 
the  inhabitants  thereof  might  elect ;  the  next  section 
authorized  the  admission  of  California,  with  her  recently 
adopted  Constitution  prohibiting  slavery  or  involuntary 
servitude ;  the  third  section  provided  for  the  organiza 
tion  of  New  Mexico  and  Utah  as  Territories,  without 
slavery  restriction  ;  the  fourth  provided  for  a  more  rigid 
enforcement  of  the  constitutional  provision  for  the  ren 
dition  of  fugitive  slaves.  The  last  section  abolished  the 
slave  trade  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  under  heavy  pen- 


THE    COMPROMISE    OF     1850.  I  I/ 

alties.  These  provisions  seemed  to  cover  all  the  points 
in  controversy.  During  the  next  few  months  this  com 
promise  was  debated  with  great  ability  in  both  houses 
of  Congress,  as  well  as  in  all  parts  of  the  Union. 

In  Georgia  it  was  injected  into  local  politics,  and  the 
matter  thoroughly  canvassed  in  county  and  district  meet 
ings.  It  led,  moreover,  to  a  partial  disruption  of  the 
old  Democratic  party.  In  Georgia,  Howell  Cobb  and 
John  H.  Lumpkin,  representing  the  Rome  and  Athens 
districts  in  Congress,  headed  the  Union  Democrats,  and 
by  a  coalition  with  the  Whigs  carried  the  gubernatorial 
election  of  18151,  defeating  Charles  J.  McDonald  and 
electing  Howell  Cobb.  This  estrangement,  however, 
between  the  Union  and  State  Rights  Democrats  was  of 
short  duration.  A  large  majority  of  the  former  returned 
to  the  Democratic  fold,  and  in  1853,  Herschel  V.  John 
son  was  chosen  over  Charles  J.  Jenkins  by  a  meager 
majority. 

That  small  majority  had,  however,  more  than  a  tem 
porary  significance.  It  showed  the  increasing  strength 
of  the  secession  sentiment  in  the  old  commonwealth. 
Nor  is  it  improbable  that  if  the  Constitutional  Unionists 
had  succeeded  in  1853,  that  Georgia  would  not  have 
passed  an  ordinance  of  secession,  and  that  means  we 
would  have  had  no  war  between  the  States. 

Rut  we  have  no  space  for  thoe  dubious  speculations. 

Pending  the  great  debate  in  Congress,  President  Tay 
lor  succumbed  to  a  sudden  but  mortal  illness,  and  Mr. 
Fillmore,  taking  the  oath  of  office,  placed  his  hand  upon 
the  helm  of  government. 


Il8  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL 

The  compromise  measures,  without  material  amend 
ment,  were  adopted  in  September  by  both  houses  of 
Congress  and  approved  by  the  President.  A  temporary 
lull  followed  this  pacific  adjustment,  but  the  agitation 
was  renewed  after  a  short  breathing  spell  in  a  fiercer 
form  than  had  been  previously  witnessed. 

Several  of  the  Northern  States  enacted  personal  lib 
erty  bills,  under  the  auspices  of  what  they  were  pleased 
to  term  the  "higher  law."  Thus  seeking  under  color 
of  a  moral  sanction  to  frustrate  the  constitutional  pro 
vision  for  the  rendition  of  fugitive  slaves,  and  in  like 
manner  to  invalidate  the  recent  compromise.  As 
might  be  supposed,  this  striking  exhibition  of  bad  faith 
fanned  the  flames  of  discord  in  the  South,  and  for  the 
first  time  not  a  few  of  the  more  conservative  statesmen 
of  that  section  began  to  calculate  seriously  the  value  of 
a  union  with  states  that  neither  respected  the  funda 
mental  law  nor  the  acts  of  Congress  framed  for  its 
enforcement. 

During  the  remainder  of  Fillmore's  official  term  there 
were  minor  incidents,  such  as  the  ill  starred  Lopez 
expedition  for  the  conquest  of  Cuba.  With  a  handful 
of  reckless  adventurers  like  himself,  he  sailed  from  New 
Orleans  without  adequate  equipment,  and  effected  a 
landing  on  the  island  to  find  himself  received  with 
scant  courtesy  by  the  Cubans,  whose  liberation  was  the 
avowed  object  of  the  invasion.  He  likewise  found 
himself  confronted  with  a  large  body  of  Spanish  troops, 
who  speedily  captured  the  leader  of  the  expedition  and 


THE    COMPROMISE    OF    1850.  119 

his  principal   followers  and  brought  them  to  Havana, 
where  they  were  summarily  executed. 

This  affair  induced  a  proposal  from  the  English  and 
French  Governments  for  a  tripartite  treaty  that  would 
have  forever  barred  the  American  Government  from 
the  acquisition  of  Cuba.  Mr.  Everett,  the  Secretary  of 
State,  refused  outright  to  accept  the  proposal,  and  took 
occasion  in  his  diplomatic  correspondence  to  reaffirm  the 
Monroe  doctrine. 

Another  event  of  widespread  interest  was  the  visit  of 
Louis  Kossuth,  the  Hungarian  leader  in  the  revolution 
of  1852.  This  revolutionist  was  welcomed  by  large 
audiences  in  the  principal  American  cities,  and  con 
siderable  sums  were  contributed  to  the  exhausted 
exchequer  of  the  countrymen  of  Maria  Theresa.  The 
immediate  results  were  small,  but  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  original  movement,  headed  by  Kossuth 
and  shamefully  betrayed  to  its  undoing  by  the  infamous 
Georgey,  led  at  a  later  period  to  the  formation  of  the 
existing  Austro-Hungarian  empire. 

The  time  had  now  arrived  when  the  two  great  Amer 
ican  parties  were  again  to  measure  their  strength  in  a 
presidential  struggle.  The  main  fight  was  to  be  con 
ducted  on  the  compromise  of  1850,  from  which  patriotic 
settlement  the  Northern  Whigs  had  already  receded. 
This  was  shown  in  the  National  Whig  Convention  of 
1852,  in  which  Fillmore  was  incontinently  shelved. 
While  it  is  true  that  the  convention  indorsed  those 
measures  in  their  platform  by  a  heavy  majority,  yet 
their  repudiation  of  Mr.  Fillmore  clearly  indicated  their 


I2O  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

hostility  to  that  principal  measure  of  his  administration. 
Gen.  Scott,  whose  military  reputation  was  unsurpassed, 
was  chosen  for  the  first  place  on  their  ticket.  The 
Democrats  likewise  indorsed  the  compromise  of  1850, 
and  presented  as  their  representative  Franklin  Pierce, 
of  New  Hampshire,  and  W.  R.  King,  of  South  Caro 
lina.  Neither  of  these  were  conspicuous,  either  for 
military  or  civil  renown,  but  the  dissensions  in  the 
Whig  party,  growing  out  of  anti-slavery  sentiment,  gave 
them  the  vantage  ground  in  the  contest.  That  senti 
ment  had  waxed  stronger,  especially  in  the  rural  dis 
tricts  of  the  North  and  West,  until  the  party  of  Clay 
and  Webster  had  been  sorely  disintegrated,  and  was 
already  verging  on  dissolution. 

And  this  very  naturally  suggests  the  fact  that  Henry 
Clay  and  Daniel  Webster  both  died  in  1852,  only  two 
or  three  months  intervening  between  the  departures  of 
these  illustrious  statesmen.  These,  with  John  C.  Cal- 
houn,  formed  the  brightest  political  constellation  in  the 
political  firmament,  and  might  be  well  likened  to  the 
three  Empyreal  suns  that  blazed  in  the  "belt  of  Orion." 
All  of  these,  died  during  Fillmore's  administration,  a 
coincidence  that  will  render  it  famous  through  all  gen 
erations.  Other  great  men  will  arise  from  time  to  time, 
for  as  yet  our  country  has  not  "  lost  the  breed  of  noble 
bloods." 

But  we  do  not  exaggerate  when  we  say  that  not  for  a 
thousand  years  will  another  such  triumvirate  arise  to 
adorn  the  Senate  Chamber,  where  are  gathered  the  rep 
resentatives  of  sovereign  States. 


THE    COMPROMISE   OF    1850.  121 

Greek  history  records  but  one  age  of  Pericles ;  Eng 
lish  history  but  one  Elizabethan  era ;  French  history 
but  one  imperialism  like  that  of  Louis  Quatorze,  and 
American  history  may  never  chronicle  another  epoch 
equal  to  that  of  Clay,  Calhoun  and  Webster. 


122  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 


GREAT  PULPIT  ORATORS, 


JOHN  NEWLAND  MAFFIT. 

WE  have  lying  on  our  table  an  old  book  printed  at 
New  London,  Conn.,  in  1821.  It  is  an  autobiography 
written  by  the  distinguished  minister  whose  name  stands 
at  the  head  of  this  sketch. 

Fifty  years  ago  Mr.  Maffit  was  one  of  the  pulpit 
celebrities  of  the  Methodist  church  As  an  orator  he 
was  classed  with  such  men  as  Durbirt,  Bascom  and 
George  Pierce  He  was  a  native  of  Ireland,  having 
been  born  in  Dublin  in  1794.  His  parents,  he  tells  us, 
belonged  to  the  Methodist  "society,"  but  were  "rigidly 
attached  to  the  established  church."  This  statement 
sounds  odd  enough  to  the  uninitiated  who  do  not  know 
that  in  its  earliest  years  Methodism  was  not  so  much  a 
church  as  a  religious  association,  within  the  pale  of  the 
English  church.  For  a  long  time  its  Sabbath  services 
were  not  held  during  canonical  hours,  and  its  ministers 
and  members  received  the  sacraments  at  the  hands  of 
the  clergy  of  the  establishment. 

John  Wesley,  the  immortal  founder,  had  what  savored 
of  a  superstitious  dread  of  schism.  He  feared  nothing 
so  much  unless  it  was  the  devil,  about  whose  person 
ality  he  entertained  not  even  the  shred  of  a  doubt.  It 


GREAT  PULPIT  ORATORS.  123 

was  the  work  and  weariness  of  his  last  years  to  prevent 
a  separation  which  he  clearly  foresaw  was  inevitable 
alter  his  death,  and  which  he  provided  for  in  that 
famous  legal  document,  the  "Deed  of  Declaration," 
which  he  enrolled  in  the  Court  of  Chancery  in  1784. 

In  this  faith,  pure  and  simple,  Mr.  Maffit  was  brought 
up  by  his  pious  parents,  and  yet  he  confesses  that  for  a 
few  years  he  was  wayward  and  reckless  in  no  ordinary 
degree.  His  conversion,  of  which  he  has  furnished  full 
details  in  this  autobiography,  bears  a  close  resemblance 
to  that  of  John  Bunyan  and  the  later  John  Newton. 
Religion  amongst  the  old  Methodists  and  the  older  Pu 
ritans,  was  not  an  evolution  but  a  cataclysm.  The  line 
of  cleavage  between  the  old  and  the  new  was  abrupt. 
Maffit  had  his  share  of  visions  and  wrestlings,  and  hand 
to  hand  conflicts  with  Apollyon  in  the  valley  of  humili 
ation.  Let  not  the  beardless  theologians  of  the  present 
generation  mock  these  experiences  of  the  fathers 

There  may  have  been  a  bit  of  superstition  and  a 
greater  amount  of  subjectiveness  in  all  this,  but  when 
they  were  converted  it  was  from  head  to  heel  and  from 
center  to  circumference.  It  made  them  the  moral  he 
roes  who  went  forth  to  the  spiritual  conquest  of  the 
American  wilderness  and  the  moral  uplifting  of  the  Cor 
nish  miners  and  the  weavers  and  spinners  of  Manches 
ter  and  the  sailors  of  the  London  and  Liverpool  dock 
yards. 

It  gave  Asbury  and  McKendree  to  America,  Gideon 
Ousley  to  Ireland  and  John  Nelson  and  a  score  like  him 
to  England.  Shortly  after  his  conversion  Maffit  sailed 


124  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

for  America,  where  he  was  destined  to  find  a  wide  field 
for  the  exercise  of  his  marvelous  gifts  as  a  preacher. 

Before  leaving  his  native  land,  however,  he  had  some 
novel  experiences  as  a  street  preacher,  being  jeered  and 
occasionally  rotten-egged,  and  other  such  treatment  as 
the  Salvation  Army  of  to-day  receives  from  the  hood 
lums  and  gutter  snipes  of  our  populous  centers.  On 
one  occasion  he  attempted  to  break  up  a  ball  by  a  stir 
ring  exhortation,  followed  by  an  enthusiastic  prayer. 
For  this  misplaced  and  ill-timed  zeal  he  got  much  ridi 
cule,  and  narrowly  escaped  a  broken  head. 

Upon  his  arrival  in  America  he  found  that  Methodism 
had  better  social  recognition  than  in  Ireland,  and  in 
some  of  the  Middle  States  had  rooted  itself  in  the 
higher  strata  of  the  population. 

Adjusting  himself  to  his  altered  environment,  he  laid 
aside  his  more  aggressive  methods  and  cultivated  a  pul 
pit  style  not  unlike  that  of  Milburn,  the  blind  Chaplain 
of  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  only  a  shade  more 
exuberant  in  fancy  than  that  of  John  Summerfield. 

Dr.  Hoss,  of  Nashville,  in  his  admirable  ecumenical 
address  on  the  religious  press,  says  ol  Maffit  that  "he 
was  an  Irishman  and  an  orator,  two  words  that  mean 
the  same  thing."  This  is  true,  but  it  must  not  be  for 
gotten  that  Ireland  has  distinct  schools  and  grades  of 
oratory.  Burke  and  Curran  were  both  Irish  orators, 
but  the  former  was  ponderous — the  latter  indulged  in 
flights  of  fancy  that  suited  better  the  jury  room  than 
the  House  of  Commons.  Maffit  in  the  pulpit  had  a 
striking  resemblance  to  Curran  at  the  bar,  by  no  means 


GREAT  PULPIT  ORATORS.  125 

so  classical  and  yet  the  same  nimble  fancy  and  a  diction 
equally  gorgeous.  We  never  heard  Mr.  Maffit  preach, 
nor  did  he  leave  a  volume  of  sermons,  so  that  we  are 
compelled  to  rely  on  traditional  accounts,  which  are 
vague  and  unsatisfactory.  A  very  dear  friend  of  ours 
listened  to  a  series  of  sermons  delivered  by  Mr.  Maffit 
at  Albany,  N.  Y.,  far  back  in  the  thirties.  At  that 
time,  this  friend,  since  greatly  distinguished  on  the 
bench,  was  a  law  student  in  the  office  of  Hon.  Ogden 
Hoffman.  He  was  himself  a  man  of  thorough  culture 
and  decided  gifts  as  an  elocutionist.  He  spoke  of 
Maffit  as  a  charming  preacher,  whose  delivery  was  fault 
less,  and  whose  word  painting  was  ^unrivalled  by  any 
minister  to  whom  he  had  then  listened.  He  was  able 
to  recall  some  passages  that  thrilled  me  in  the  recital, 
but  which  have  dropped  out  of  my  own  memory. 

But  this  matters  little,  as  this  friend's  testimony  was 
borne  by  all  his  contemporaries.  Dr.  Lovick  Pierce 
also  put  a  high  estimate  on  Mr.  Maffit's  ability  as  a 
preacher.  At  one  period  of  his  life  Mr.  Maffit  was 
chosen  editor  of  the  Nashville  Advocate,  no  mean  com 
pliment  to  any  writer. 

His  latter  years  were  saddened  and  shadowed  by  bod 
ily  affliction.  Nor  is  it  amiss  to  say  that  he  suffered 
from  other  causes  that  we  do  not  care  to  dwell  upon. 
To  his  dying  day  he  retained  the  affection  and  confi 
dence  of  thousands  who  trusted  implicitly  in  his  minis 
terial  and  personal  integrity,  believing  him  to  be  the 
victim  of  persecution.  He  died,  and  is  buried  at  Mo- 


126  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

bile,  Alabama,  much  loved  and  honored  in  that  center 
of  Alabama  Methodism. 

Mr.  Maffit  left  several  sons,  one  of  whom  was  a  gal 
lant  captain  of  our  Confederate  navy,  and  a  bosom 
friend  of  that  old  "sea  lion,"  Admiral  Semmes,  and  of 
his  right  bower,  Captain  Kell,  the  Adjutant  General  of 
Georgia.  Another  of  his  sons,  now  dead,  was  the  hus 
band  of  Mrs.  Maffit,  of  this  city.  That  late  noble  Chris 
tian  woman,  Mrs.  B.  B.  Crew,  was  his  grand  d  lughter. 
One  of  Dr.  Maffit's  daughters  was  the  wife  of  Mirabeau 
B.  Lamar,  the  second  President  ot  Texas.  Others  of 
Atlanta,  and  Mobile's  worthiest  citizens  are  related  to 
this  eminent  minister  by  marriage  or  consanguinity. 

I  had  hoped  to  find,  in  the  book  to  which  I  alluded 
in  the  outset,  some  specimens  of  his  pulpit  productions, 
but  it  was  written  while  he  was  quite  young,  twenty- 
five  years  of  age — and  still  we  detect  in  his  pious  reflec 
tions,  scattered  throughout  the  volume,  the  buddings 
of  that  genius  which  in  after  years  made  him  a  most 
attractive  and  able  minister  of  the  gospel. 

In  his  youth  he  seems  at  intervals  to  have  paid  court 
to  the  "tuneful  nine."  Some  of  the  first  fruits  are 
found  in  several  short  poems  which  constitute  an  appen 
dix  to  his  autobiography.  They  remind  us  of  the  ear 
lier  poems  of  Henry  Kirke  White,  having  about  them 
the  same  religious  fervor  and  flavor.  As  they  are  the 
immature  products  of  his  younger  years,  they  are  not 
to  be  tried  by  the  canons  of  a  sterner  criticism.  They, 
doubtless,  would  have  a  charm  for  many  readers. 


GREAT  PULPIT  ORATORS.  12J 

HENRY  BIDDLEMAN  BASCOM. 

Dr.  Bascom  was  a  sharp  contrast  to  the  eminent  min 
ister  just  sketched.  He  was  a  native  of  New  York,  but 
from  an  early  age  was  identified  with  Southern  Metho 
dism. 

When  a  mere  stripping  he  entered  the  ministry,  first 
in  Ohio,  afterwards  in  Kentucky,  where  his  ministerial 
fortunes  were  strangely  checkered.  He  was,  when  still 
young,  a  man  of  majestic  features  and  figure,  with  a 
Jovian  brow  and  an  eye  to  "  threaten  and  command." 
He  affected  fine  clothes,  which,  amongst  not  a  few  of 
his  clerical  contemporaries,  was  esteemed  a  grievous 
fault.  His  style  of  speech  in  the  pulpit  subjected  him 
to  censure,  and  not  a  few  "plain,  packstaff  Metho 
dists"  amongst  the  laity  and  a  goodly  number  of  the 
old-fashioned  elders  in  the  ministry,  greatly  feared  that 
the  youthful  orator  was  a  bit  too  self-conceited. 

It  was,  therefore,  considered  a  wise  policy  to  send 
the  young  preacher  to  mountain  circuits,  where  the  rough 
and  tumble  experiences  of  itinerant  life  would  take  the 
starch  out  of  his  clerical  vestments.  But  young  Bas 
com  had  "the  root  of  the  matter"  in  him,  and  came 
forth  from  the  ordeal  strengthened  in  purpose  and  in  far 
better  repute  with  preachers  and  people. 

It  was  a  lucky  chance  for  Bascom  that  brought  him  to 
the  knowledge  of  Henry  Clay.  Mr.  Clay  was  charmed 
with  his  conversation  and  preaching,  and  is  credited 
with  saying  that  he  had  no  equal  in  the  American  pul 
pit.  This  indorsement  of  the  Kentucky  giant  gave 


128  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

Bascoin  the  entree  to  the  best  circles  and  the  foremost 
positions  in  the  Methodist  church. 

In  a  few  years  he  was  chosen  as  a  delegate  to  the 
General  Conference,  where  he  was  destined  to  win 
greater  distinction. 

In  the  memorable  conference  of  1844,  he  was  in  some 
respects  the  most  conspicuous  of  the  Southern  delegates 
in  that  body  of  representative  men.  As  a  debater  he 
made  no  considerable  figure,  being  overshadowed  by 
such  trained  disputants  as  Winans,  of  Mississippi ; 
Capers,  of  South  Carolina;  Smith  and  Early,  of  Virginia, 
and  Paine,  of  Tennessee.  But  when  it  came  to  the  ap 
pointment  of  some  one  to  prepare  the  protest  of  the 
Southern  minority,  Bascom  was  selected  for  that  pur 
pose,  and  discharged  that  duty  with  marked  ability. 

In  the  Louisville  Convention  of  the  next  year  (1845), 
which  organized  the  M.  E.  Church  South,  on  the  basis 
of  the  plan  of  separation  adopted  the  previous  year  by 
the  General  Conference,  his  valuable  services  were 
again  in  requisition.  He  it  was  that  prepared  a  paper 
setting  forth  the  reasons  for  separation — a  document 
which  in  clearness  of  statement  and  vigor  of  argument 
compares  favorably  with  Webster's  letter  to  Baron 
Hulseman. 

Dr.  Bascom,  because  of  his  scholarly  attainments,  was 
at  different  times  made  president  of  two  or  more  col 
leges  and  universities. 

At  the  second  General  Conference  held  at  St.  Louis 
in  1850,  Dr.  Bascom  was  elected  to  the  Episcopacy. 
Contrary  to  immemorial  custom  he  was  designated  to 


GREAT  PULPIT  ORATORS.  1 29 

preach  his  own  ordination  sermon.  That  grandest  effort 
of  his  ministry  gave  assurance  that  in  his  new  and 
responsible  position  he  would  be  a  blessing  to  the 
church  which  had  so  highly  honored  him.  But  his 
Episcopal  career  was  cut  short  by  an  untimely  death, 
having,  we  believe,  presided  at  but  a  single  session  of 
an  annual  conference. 

Leaving  these  brief  biographical  details,  we  proceed 
to  speak  of  his  characteristics  as  a  pulpit  orator. 

We  have  already  remarked  that  Maffit  and  Bascom 
were  sharply  contrasted  in  their  pulpit  styles.  The 
former  had  a  larger  share  of  the  "suaviter  in  modo," 
and  with  more  fancy  had  less  of  the  Miltonic  imagina 
tion.  Bascom,  in  consequence  of  his  better  educational 
advantages,  was  more  classical  and  more  logical.  But 
we  question  if  he  was  the  equal  of  Maffit  in  the  ability 
to  melt  and  move  a  vast  assembly.  In  Bascom  there 
was  more  of  that  majestic  bearing  and  intellectual  sweep 
which  was  seen  in  Thomas  Chalmers  when  he  thundered 
from  the  pulpit  of  the  Ton  church,  and  in  some  wise 
shook  Scotland  from  Maiden  Kirk  to  John  O'Groats. 

Bascom  loved  the  great  themes  of  Revelations.  He 
liked  to  toy  with  thunderings  and  lightnings  of  Sinai 
and  to  portray  in  vivid  colors  the  scenes  of  the  general 
judgment  When  standing  on  these  loftier  altitudes  of 
Christian  thought  he  was  as  much  at  home  as  the  eagle 
when  he  spurns  some  Alpine  summit  and  soars  right 
onward  and  upward  to  the  su-n. 

Bishop  Bascom  published  several  volumes  of  college 
lectures,  and  we  believe  but  a  single  volume  of  sermons. 


I3O  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

These  latter  have  been  widely  read  and  much  admired 
by  the  younger  Methodist  clergy,  and  some  of  them 
have  been  so  inconsiderate  as  to  attempt  to  imitate  Bas- 
com's  pulpit  methods.  It  is  the  old  story  of  the  strip 
ling  David  in  Saul's  armor,  but  some  of  them  were  not 
as  wise  as  the  son  of  Jesse,  who  put  aside  the  battle 
harness  of  the  stalwart  Benjaminite  and  went  forth  to 
the  combat  with  his  shepherd's  sling  and  a  few  stones 
gathered  out  of  the  wayside  brook. 

But  we  recur  to  his  ordination  sermon  at  St.  Louis  in 
1850  as  his  masterpiece.  Demosthenes  made  many 
wonderful  orations,  but  none  of  them  was  equal  to  the 
"Oration  on  the  Crown."  Bascom  likewise  preached 
a  number  of  great  sermons,  but  in  none  of  them  did  he 
reach  the  high  water  mark  of  his  genius,  except  in  that 
notable  discourse.  The  text  was:  "God  forbid  that  I 
should  glory,  save  in  the  cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. " 
Of  course  the  burden  of  the  sermon  was  the  atonement. 
It  happily  blended  argument  and  appeal.  It  was  logic 
at  a  white  heat.  It  was  eloquence  such  as  might 
become  the  tongue  of  an  angel  who,  returning  from  an 
errand  to  some  far-off  planet,  hovered  for  a  brief  while 
on  poised  wing  above  reprobate  Jerusalem,  and  was  an 
eye-witness  of  the  crucifixion.  So  thrilling  was  the 
sermon  that  gray-haired  veterans  wept  like  children, 
and  some  shouted  "Hosannah  to  the  Son  of  David!  " 

The  peroration  was  a  climax  of  beauty  and  power. 
We  can  only  recall  it  in  part.  Said  the  newly  elected 
bishop:  "When  we  speak  of  the  cross  we  do  not  refer 
to  that  symbol  of  redemption  as  it  blazed  on  the  impe- 


GREAT  PULPIT  ORATORS  131 

rial  labarum  of  Constantino,  nor  yet  as  it  appeared  in  the 
mystic  monogram  of  the  Rosicrucian,  but  that  divine 
cross  of  Calvary,  all  stained  with  hallowed  blood,  which 
is  the  sign  and  seal  of  a  world's  redemption.  Let  its 
precious  light  go  forth  to  the  ends  of  creation,  until 
from  every  dwelling  place  of  universal  being  there  shall 
be  heard  the  loud  acclaim  :  "The  cross  !  The  cross  ! ! 
The  cross  !  ! ! '' 


I32  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES, 


JOHN  THE  BELOVED  DISCIPLE. 

IT  requires  no  inconsiderable  stretch  of  fancy  to  con 
ceive  of  the  aged  presbyter  of  Ephesus  who  wrote  the 
charming  Epistles  to  Gaius  and  to  the  elect  lady  as  once 
'•a  mere  boy  playing  beside  his  father's  boat  on  that 
bright  strip  of  sand  which  still  marks  the  site  of  Beth- 
saida. "  And  yet  even  the  average  human  life  from 
youth  to  extreme  age  is  full  of  such  varied  and  rare,  we 
might  say  such  incongruous  incidents  and  experiences. 

The  especial  pre-eminence  of  St.  John  in  the  apos 
tolic  college  was  in  a  large  measure  due  to  the  fact  that 
he  was  "the  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved."  There  is  lit 
tle  force  in  the  suggestion  that  possibly  there  was  a  bit 
of  nepotism  in  the  ardent  attachment  of  our  Saviour  to 
the  younger  son  of  Zebedee  and  Salome.  While  the 
Master  and  His  favorite  disciple  were  kinsmen  by  birth 
and  blood,  yet  we  feel  assured  that  their  close  and  con 
fidential  relationship  was  not  the  simple  out-growth  of 
an  unreasoning  human  sentiment,  but  rather  the  result 
of  a  spiritual  kinship  as  indicated  by  their  striking  moral 
affinity. 

While  Peter  and  James  shared  with  John  the  stronger 
confidence  and  warmer  fellowship  of  their  divine  leader, 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES.  133 

yet  even  in  this  inner  circle  of  discipleship  there  were 
unmistakable  evidences  that  he  stood  foremost  in  rank 
as  he  did  in  gifts  and  graces. 

In  the  first  general  council  at  Jerusalem,  St.  Paul — 
whether  by  a  wise  intuition  or  by  a  direct  revelation  is 
of  no  great  consequence — readily  perceived  that  these 
three  were  reckoned  pillar  Apostles.  They  consti 
tuted  a  sort  of  imperium  in  imperio ;  and,  strangely 
enough  as  we  see  it,  naming  them  as  James,  Cephas  and 
Joseph,  he  inverted  the  order  in  which  we  are  inclined 
to  place  them.  This,  if  intentional  on  the  part  of  St. 
Paul,  might  be  accounted  lor  by  the  circumstance  that 
on  this  particular  occasion  James,  the  titular  and  per 
haps  rightful  bishop  of  the  mother  Church,  presided 
over  the  council,  and  that  Peter,  as  was  his  habit,  was 
the  chief  speaker  John,  as  on  other  occasions,  was 
reticent  because,  as  some  have  conjectured,  of  a  becom 
ing  deference  to  his  older  brethren  of  the  apostleship. 

But  perhaps  a  better  clue  to  the  habitual  reserve  of 
this  great  apostle  is  furnished  by  Archdeacon  Farrar. 
He  states  that  St.  John  was  of  a  contemplative  habit, 
and,  therefore,  did  not  affect  the  more  aggressive 
methods  of  his  fellow-apostles.  Not  one  of  them,  how 
ever,  was  his  equal  in  culture  or  social  position,  nor  did 
any  of  them  contribute  as  largely  to  the  literature  of 
the  New  Covenant.  That  John  was  justified  in  refer 
ring  to  himself  by  the  modest  circumlocution  as  "  the 
disciple  whom  Jesus  loved"  is  evident  from  two 
recorded  incidents  of  the  Last  Supper.  The  circum 
stance  of  his  leaning  on  the  breast  of  Jesus  was 


134  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

probably  not  exceptional ;  at  any  rate,  it  was  signifi 
cant.  Nor  was  it  less  so  when  Simon  Peter  would 
know  who  of  their  number  would  betray  him  that  the 
Master  made  this  same  disciple  the  medium  of  com 
munication  to  the  other  brethren.  The  clearest  proof, 
however,  of  the  Saviour's  firm  trust  in  John's  personal 
fidelity  was  at  the  crucifixion.  Forgetting  the  agonies 
he  was  suffering,  losing  sight  of  the  mockings  and 
revilings  of  the  Priest  ridden  rabble  that  swayed  to  and 
fro  at  the  foot  of  the  cross,  he  sought  the  eager  eye  of 
the  beloved  disciple,  and  said:  "Son,  behold  thy 
mother."  Henceforth  the  blessed  Virgin  became  the 
honored  and  cherished  guest  of  the  beloved  disciple. 

This  is  but  a  single  instance  of  the  responsiveness  of 
John  to  the  slightest  word  or  wish  of  the  Master. 
Just  as  the  strings  of  the  harp  were  responsive  to  the 
softest  finger  touch  of  the  stripling  David,  so  every 
chord  of  John's  heart  was  adjusted  to  the  faintest 
whisper  of  Christ's  love.  Psychologists  talk  long  and 
learnedly  of  persons  that  are  en  rapport  one  with  the 
other.  This  mysterious  relationship  does  exist,  and  it 
was  in  no  dubious  sense  a  bond  of  endearment  between 
the  Saviour  and  his  apostle. 

But,  if  we  analyze  the  character  of  St.  John,  we  dis 
cover  that  beyond  any  and  all  others  of  that  immediate 
generation,  he  combined  those  qualities  which  shone 
brightest  in  the  character  and  life  of  the  world's 
Redeemer.  These  qualities  were  a  tenderness  more 
than  womanly,  and  a  courage  that  neither  quaked  nor 
quailed  in  the  presence  of  difficulty  or  danger. 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES.  135 

The  familiar  couplet, 

The  bravest  are  the  tenderest, 
The  loving  are  the  daring. 

was  illustrated  in  the  character  of  St.  John.  That  he 
was  gentle  in  a  remarkable  degree  was  abundantly  shown 
in  many  incidents  of  his  life,  and  yet  more  strikingly  in 
the  Fourth  Gospel  and  in  his  three  Epistles.  It  must 
have  been  a  warm  and  loving  heart  from  which  leaped, 
like  an  altar-flame,  that  loftiest  generalization  of  Holy 
Writ:  "God  is  love."  Who,  indeed,  can  compass  its 
manifold  and  marvelous  meanings?  How  it  puts  to 
shame  every  other  theism,  oriential  or  occidental !  How 
it  brings 

Joy  to  the  desolate ;  Light  to  the  straying ! 

Ay,  more,  how  it  opens  the  door  of  hope  in  every 
"Valley  of  Achor!"  and  how  it  whispers  to  every 
chafed  spirit  and  troubled  heart  the  "Peace  be  still" 
which  caused  the  waves  of  Gennesaret  to  crouch  obedi 
ently  at  the  feet  of  the  incarnated  word  and  wisdom  ot 
God!  O,  my  disquieted  soul,  hope  thou  in  God,  for  His 
nature  and  His  name  is  love.  A  love  passing  the  love 
of  woman,  whether  wife  or  mother  ;  a  love  that  flares 
forth  at  midnight  through  the  deep  defiles  and  up  the 
dizzy  steeps  of  dark  mountains,  searching  diligently  for 
the  lost  sheep  and  bringing  it  back  to  the  shelter  of  the 
fold. 

John,  beyond  any  of  the  apostles,  has  firmly  grasped 
this  central  idea  of  the  gospel.  Hence,  in  his  own  gos 
pel,  he  hurries  away  from  the  mystery  of  the  Logos  and 
lingers  long  and  lovingly  on  the  valedictory  sayings  of 


136  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

his  Master,  where  there  is  much  of  the  Comforter  and 
the  "house  of  many  mansions"  and  the  abiding  peace 
and  the  perennial  joy  that  remaineth. 

There  was.  however,  another  side  to  the  character  of 
this  great  apostle.  He  was  not,  as  a  distinguished 
writer  has  said,  the  dreamful  "  pietest  which  appears  in 
the  pictures  of  Titian  and  Raphael."  At  times,  not  a 
few,  he  manifested  that  "  Elijah  spirit''  which  made  the 
Saviour  characterize  him  as  a  "Son  of  Thunder" — less 
impulsive,  it  may  be,  than  Peter,  but  when  fully  roused 
more  vehement.  It  was  this  "manner  of  spirit,"  more 
over,  which  made  him,  on  the  night  of  the  betrayal, 
enter  boldly  into  the  palace  of  the  high  priest  when  the 
other  ten,  taking  no  account  of  Iscariot,  faltered  and 
fled  or  followed  afar  off  like  Simon  Peter.  Nor  did 
Peter's  denial,  of  which  he  was  in  some  sort  an  eye  and 
ear  witness,  in  the  least  shake  the  constancy  of  his 
steadfast  mind.  All  through  the  hours  of  that  night  of 
tenebrific  blackness  did  he,  like  Abdiel,  the  stripling 
seraph  of  "  Paradise  Lost,"  keep  his  loyalty  untarnished. 

On  the  next  day  this  unswerving  loyalty  was  further 
shown  when  he  was  the  sole  representative  of  the  apos- 
tolate  in  that  group  of  devoted  women  who  stood  in  the 
shadow  of  the  cross.  To  his  presence  we  owe  our 
knowledge  of  one  striking  feature  of  that  tragic  scene. 
We  allude  to  the  brutal  spear-thrust  of  the  Roman  sol 
dier,  in  response  to  which  blood  and  water  issued  forth, 
testifying  to  the  certainty  of  his  death,  and  typical  of 
the  cleansing  and  saving  power  of  that  death. 

But  the  greater  displays  of  John's  sterner  nature  were 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES.  137 

reserved  to  his  riper  years,  when  he  endured  the  utmost 
stress  of  Jewish  and  Roman  persecution. 

The  legend  of  the  caldron  of  boiling  oil  from  which 
he  escaped  unhurt  may  have  no  historic  basis,  but  there 
is  no  sufficient  reason  to  question  the  story  of  his  ban 
ishment  by  an  edict  of  Domitian  to  Patmos,  a  barren 
rock  in  the  yEgean  Sea.  There  it  was  that  he  "saw  the 
Apocalypse,"  with  its  wild  and  weird  imagery.  There 
it  was  that  he  witnessed  the  opening  of  the  seven  seals 
and  heard  the  blast  of  the  seven  trumpets  as  they 
sounded  the  march  of  the  Christian  centuries  toward 
the  final  consummation.  Away  from  the  habitations  of 
men  and  shut  out  from  the  communion  of  saints,  he 
was  granted  a  vision  of  the  glorified  church — a  great 
multitude  redeemed  out  of  every  kindred,  tongue  and 
people. 

In  this  sea-girt  prison  he  is  thought  to  have  written 
the  Revelation  and  most  probably  his  First  Epistle. 
Some  have  likewise  suggested  that  during  this  enforced 
loneliness  he  wrote  the  Fourth  Gospel,  in  which  he 
supplies  the  notable  "lack  of  service"  of  the  Synoptists. 
This  would  leave  only  his  brief  Second  and  Third  Epis 
tles  for  his  later  residence  at  Ephesus,  the  capitol  of 
Proconsular  Asia.  There  is,  however,  much  confusion 
in  the  chronology  of  that  period,  so  that  there  is  no 
great  degree  of  certitude  in  these  statements.  Besides, 
there  are  some  marks  of  a  controversial  aim  in  both  his 
Gospel  and  First  Epistle,  which  would  place  them  at  a 
later  date. 

His    Episcopal    residence  at  Ephesus,   to    which  we 


138  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

have  just  referred,  although  well  established  as  a  fact,  is 
shrouded  in  mystery.  Many  things  are  related  of  these 
closing  years  of  the  "beloved  disciple"  that  have  been 
greatly  questioned.  The  story  of  his  reclaiming  an 
apostate  youth  from  a  life  of  brigandage  is  a  romantic 
feature  of  these  later  years,  and  is  so  thoroughly  charac 
teristic  of  the  great  apostle  that  we  are  reluctant  to  dis 
credit  it.  So  we  might  say  of  the  beautiful  incident  of 
his  being  borne  in  his  Episcopal  chair  to  the  assemblies 
ot  the  Ephesian  Church,  and  with  tremulous  voice  and 
uplifted  hands,  exhorting  them:  "Little  children, 
love  one  another. "  But  after  all,  the  most  curious  myth 
was  one  which  was  based  on  the  response  of  the  Saviour 
to  the  impertinent  questioning  of  Peter  in  regard  to  the 
destiny  of  John:  "What  if  I  will  that  he  tarry  until  I 
come?" 

This  response  raised  a  general  expectation  amongst 
the  disciples  that  John  would  survive  the  second  advent; 
and  yet  it  was  as  the  scriptures  teach,  a  palpable  misin 
terpretation.  Here  it  may  be,  however,  we  have  the 
germ  of  the  legend  of  the  Wandering  Jew,  who,  under 
various  names,  as  Ahasuerus,  Salathiel,  and  others,  "has 
passed  like  night  from  land  to  land.'' 

Be  this  as  it  may,  yet,  sooner  or  later,  the  hour  struck 
when  the  last  apostle  must  needs  die — not,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  other  eleven,  by  violence,  but,  as  was  befit 
ting  the  character  of  John,  in  quietness  and  in  the  midst 
of  gentle  ministrants,  human  and  angelic, 

While  heaven  and  earth  conspired  to  say 
How  blest  the  righteous  when  he  dies. 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES.  139 

ST.  JAMES,  BISHOP  OF  JERUSALEM. 

CONSERVATISM — a  ponderous  word,  whether  in  poli 
tics  or  religion — is  the  term  that  best  expresses  the 
leading  characteristics  of  James,  "the  Lord's  brother," 
and  the  first  Bishop  of  Jerusalem. 

In  a  technical  sense,  James  was  a  non-apostolic  man, 
like  Luke,  the  evangelist,  and  Barnabas,  the  "  son  of 
consolation."  And  yet,  in  a  broader  acceptation,  he 
was  reckoned  one  of  the  three  "pillar  apostles"  by  the 
mother  Church  at  Jerusalem. 

In  what  sense  he  was  our  "Lord's  brother"  is  in 
volved  in  some  obscurity.  If  literally  true,  it  over 
throws  the  Catholic  dogma  of  the  perpetual  virginity  of 
the  blessed  mother  of  Christ.  With  such  speculations, 
which  are  more  curious  than  edifying,  we  have  no  pres 
ent  concern.  That  James  was  a  Nazarite  from  his  birth, 
and  that  he  was  reared  to  manhood  in  the  house  of 
Joseph  and  Mary  at  Nazareth,  are  as  well  ascertained 
as  any  other  facts  in  connection  with  the  holy  family. 

Such  an  environment  was  favorable  to  the  develop 
ment  of  every  human  virtue,  and  James  grew  to  man's 
estate  greatly  respected  and  beloved  by  all  classes  of  his 
Jewish  countrymen.  Although  a  devoted  disciple  of 
Jesus,  he  was,  by  reason  of  his  strict  observance  of  the 
Mosaic  laws,  in  good  repute  with  the  hierarchy  at  Jeru 
salem,  so  much  so,  indeed,  that  they  surnamed  him 
"The  Just." 

The  best  analysis  of  the  character  of  James  may  be 
soonest  arrived  at  by  a  careful  study  of  his  General 


I4O  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

Epistle,  which,  according  to  our  conception,  is  a  sort  of 
connecting  link  between  the  Old  and  New  Testament 
Scriptures.  It  was  not  formally  admitted  into  the 
sacred  canon  until  the  Council  of  Carthage,  A.  D.  394. 
Previously,  however,  it  had  been  accepted  by  the  Syr 
ian  Church  and  incorporated  into  the  Peshito,  one  of 
the  earliest  versions  of  which  we  have  any  knowledge. 
Whilst  several  of  the  Fathers  rejected  it,  others  of 
these — including  the  learned  Latin  Father  Jerome — 
gave  it  their  indorsement  as  thoroughly  canonical. 
That  the  Epistle  was  known  to  the  Church  at  a  very 
early  period  abundantly  appears  from  the  fact  that  St. 
Peter,  as  shown  in  his  First  Epistle,  was  familiar  with 
its  text.  Some  of  the  thoughts,  and  even  verbiage,  of 
St.  Peter  particularly,  as  it  relates  to  the  disciplinary 
uses  of  adversity,  are  almost  identical  with  those  of  St. 
James. 

The  most  striking  peculiarity  of  this  Epistle  is  the 
emphasis  with  which  the  apostle  stresses  the  observance 
of  the  moral  law  in  order  to  personal  salvation.  It  was 
this  salient  feature  that  made  it  a  stone  of  stumbling  to 
Luther,  and  induced  him  to  stigmatize  it  as  a  ''straw 
Epistle,"  quite  unworthy  of  a  place  in  the  sacred  canon. 
This  alleged  discrepancy  as  to  the  mode  of  human  justi 
fication  between  the  teachings  of  Paul  and  James  was 
indeed  a  favorite  tDpic  of  discussion  with  the  schoolmen 
of  the  Middle  Ages.  For  centuries  these  exegetes  were 
puzzling  themselves  and  mystifying  their  readers  as  well, 
about  a  matter  which,  like  the  question  of  the  harmony 
of  the  Gospels,  only  needed  the  research  and  scholar- 


CHARACTER    SKETCHES.  14! 

ship  of  a  later  age  to  adjust  in  a  manner  eminently  sat 
isfactory  to  the  great  body  of  Christian  believers. 

Fortunately  for  the  peace  and  sound  indoctrination  of 
the  Church,  neither  the  Pauline  nor  the  Jacobean  view 
has  prevailed  to  the  utter  exclusion  of  the  opposite 
view.  "Not  ot  works,  lest  any  man  should  boast,"  is 
true;  so,  likewise,  that  other  saying:  "  Knowest  thou 
not,  O  vain  man,  that  faith  without  works  is  dead,  being 
alone?"  These,  as  has  often  been  argued,  are  comple 
mentary  truths,  and  in  no  just  sense  contradictory  doc 
trinal  statements.  The  rejection  of  the  former  entangles 
us  with  a  legal  issue  which  is  of  the  very  essence  of 
Pharisaism,  while  the  rejection  of  the  latter  would  entail 
on  the  Church  the  curse  of  Antinomianism.  In  either 
event  our  theology  would  be  warped  and  of  necessity 
lopsided.  But,  by  a  reconcilement  of  the  two  Apostles 
— really  a  matter  of  little  difficulty — we  reach  a  conclu 
sion  in  perfect  accord  with  the  analogy  of  the  faith. 

It  would  be  a  grave  injustice  to  lay  to  the  charge  of 
either  the  palpable  perversions  and  even  monstrous  er 
rors  which  have  been  propounded  and  practiced  under 
color  of  authority  of  one  or  the  other. 

Whilst  it  is  well  understood  that  the  Epistles  to  the 
Romans  and  Galatians  have  been  distorted  by  Antino- 
mians,  to  the  serious  hurt  of  Christianity,  so  likewise 
the  Epistle  of  St.  James  has  been  twisted — or,  rather, 
travestied — by  legalists  to  the  great  hinderance  of  Gos 
pel  truth.  But  St.  Paul  is  no  whit  responsible  for  the 
folly  of  Solfidianism,  nor  is  St.  James  chargeable  with 
the  not  less  mischievous  heresy  of  Ebionism.  The 


142  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

effort  of  the  Council  of  Trent  to  straddle  the  issue  is  at 
best  a  "most  lame  and  impotent  conclusion,"  which 
needs  no  refutation  at  our  hands.  It  occurs  to  us  that 
St.  James  himself  covers  the  whole  field  of  this  unseemly 
wrangle  when  he  characterizes  the  Gospel  as  "a  per 
fect  love  of  liberty."  This  by  any  fair  interpretation 
shuts  out  error  in  both  directions.  The  Gospel  is  not 
a  bare  euphemism,  but  a  law  as  stringent  as  that  which 
the  Divine  finger  wrote  on  the  two  stone  tables  of  Sinai. 
Both  are  the  work  of  the  same  "legislative  God." 
Both  have  for  their  sanctions  nothing  less  than  eternal 
life  or  endless  death.  And  yet  that  "perfect  law" 
brings  deliverance  from  a  bondage  more  cruel  than  abo 
litionism  ever  feigned  or  fancied  in  the  rice-fields  of  the 
Carolinas  or  on  the  sugar  estates  of  Louisiana.  It  pro 
claims  a  moral  liberty  to  the  captive  of  sin  untainted  by 
license — a  liberty  to  be  won  not  by  the  mailed  hand  of 
controversy,  but  received  by  the  broken  heart  and  con 
trite  spirit  of  penitence. 

Some  have  been  inclined  to  weaken  the  authority  of 
the  Epistle  on  the  ground  that  the  Gospel  is  not  once 
named  in  the  five  chapters  that  compose  it.  A  like 
criticism  as  to  shallowness  was  long  ago  made  on  the 
Book  of  Esther,  because,  forsooth,  the  name  of  God  is 
not  mentioned  a  single  time  by  its  author,  whether 
Ezra  or  Nehemiah.  The  oft-quoted  reply  to  this 
objection  that  in  no  book  of  the  Old  Testament  are  the 
foot-prints  and  finger-marks  of  a  Divine  Providence 
more  clearly  visible,  at  once  effectually  silences  the 
puerile  cavil. 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES.  143 

That  St.  James  wrote  his  Epistle  to  antagonize  the 
special  views  of  St.  Paul,  and  in  the  interest  of  the  Ju- 
daizing  teachers  who  so  stoutly  opposed  him  in  his  apos 
tolic  work,  has  scarcely  the  semblance  of  historic  truth. 

The  probabilities  are  largely  in  favor  of  the  theory 
that  the  Epistle  antedates  the  period  of  the  "foolish 
Galatians,"  as  well  as  the  weightier  Epistle  to  the  Ro 
mans.  Moreover,  the  personal  relations  between  Paul 
and  James,  as  shown  from  the  former's  successive  visits 
to  Jerusalem,  contraindicate  the  correctness  of  this  state 
ment.  The  one  as  the  representative  of  Judaic  Chris 
tianity,  and  the  other  as  the  representative  of  Gentile 
Christianity,  at  no  time  or  place  had  a  "sharp  conten 
tion,"  as  did  Paul  and  Barnabas  at  Antioch.  Whatever 
their  minor  differences,  they  both,  in  the  best  of  moods, 
went  their  several  ways,  both  aiming  at  the  glory  of  God 
and  the  honor  of  a  common  Saviour. 

From  this  polemical  writing  we  turn  to  the  simpler 
and  more  congenial  study  of  the  manner  of  the  life  and 
death  of  the  first  Bishop  of  Jerusalem.  The  religious 
life  of  St.  James  was  somewhat  tinged  by  an  asceticism 
that  savored  of  the  sect  of  the  Essenes,  whose  scheme 
of  philosophy  was  the  stoicism  of  Hebrew  history. 

By  some  writers  he  has  been  likened  to  John  the  Bap 
tist,  whose  trumpet-voice  first  roused  a  backslidden  peo 
ple  to  a  consciousness  of  their  individual  and  national 
transgressions.  Beyond  any  man  of  the  first  century. 
St.  James  was  abundant  in  fastings  and  prayers.  Of 
the  latter  it  has  been  said  that  such  was  the  frequency 


144  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

of  his  public  and  private  devotions  that  his  knees  were 
"worn  hard  like  those  of  a  camel." 

He  had  the  same  love  for  the  sanctuary  that  distin 
guished  the  aged  Simeon  and  Anna  the  prophetess,  who 
departed  not  from  the  temple  day  or  night.  While  St. 
Paul  owed  to  him  the  earliest  official  recognition  of  Gen 
tile  Christianity,  yet  it  is  doubtful  if  St.  James  ever  was 
outside  of  the  walls  of  Jerusalem  after  the  ascension  of 
Christ.  Nor  did  this  proceed  from  any  indifference  to 
the  evangelistic  work  of  Peter  and  Paul,  but  from  a 
thorough  conviction  that  Jerusalem — the  Holy  City — 
was  the  divinely-appointed  field  of  his  apostolic  labor. 
There  was  about  him  a  brotherly  appreciation  of  moral 
goodness,  wherever  seen,  that  endeared  him  to  all  classes 
of  his  countrymen.  Already  we  have  referred  to  the 
fact  that  because  of  the  immaculate  purity  of  his  life  he 
was  surnamed  "The  Just,"  to  which  popular  verdict 
even  the  stern  ecclesiasticism  of  the  Scribes  assented. 

But  soon  the  shadows  began  to  thicken  about  James 
and  the  city  he  so  ardently  loved.  As  the  day  of  reck 
oning  drew  near,  there  were  portents  and  prophecies  of 
the  impending  destruction.  During  the  Feast  of  Tab 
ernacles,  and  likewise  in  the  midst  of  the  Paschal  solem 
nities,  a  wild-eyed  fanatic,  called  Jesus,  appeared  upon 
the  scene.  He  was  only  a  less  mysterious  personage 
than  Melchizedek,  who  met  Abraham  after  his  slaughter 
of  the  five  kings.  Day  and  night  he  lifted  up  his  voice 
in  wailing  and  warning.  The  little  children  were  nestled 
closer  to  their  mothers,  as  the  stillness  of  midnight  was 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES.  145 

broken  by  his  frantic  outcry:   "Woe  to  Jerusalem!  woe 
to  the  Temple!" 

By  every  visible  token  a  mightier  and  sharper  sword 
than  that  of  Damocles  was  suspended  above  the  Davidic 
capital,  which,  like  majestic  Babylon,  had  made  itself 
drunken  with  the  "blood  of  the  saints."  Already  the 
tramp  of  the  Roman  legions  might  be  heard  in  the  dim 
distance.  The  prophetic  eagles  were  gathering  to  the 
carcass  of  a  doomed  city  and  a  dead  dispensation.  But 
despite  these  evil  omens  the  rush  of  traffic  and  the  rev 
elry  of  licentiousness  suffered  not  even  a  momentary 
abatement.  "As  it  was  in  the  days  of  Noah  so  also 
shall  it  be  in  the  days  of  the  Son  of  man."  These 
words  spake  Jesus  as  He  departed  from  the  Temple,  and 
now  they  were  to  be  shortly  fulfilled.  At  this  critical 
juncture  the  Sanhedrim  hierarchy  that  "sat  in  Moses' 
seat"  began  to  plot  for  the  murder  of  the  saintly  Chris 
tian  Bishop  of  Jerusalem.  Under  the  leadership  of 
Hanan,  a  descendant  of  the  wicked  Caiphas  of  our 
Saviour's  time,  they  secured  the  arrest  of  James,  and, 
placing  him  on  the  pinnacle  of  the  Temple,  they  mocked 
and  jeered  him,  and  closed  the  shameful  spectacle  by 
hurling  him  down  headlong.  Seeing  that  he  was  not 
killed  by  the  fall  they  began  to  stone  him,  as  aforetime 
they  had  stoned  the  blessed  martyr  Stephen.  In  the 
midst  of  the  murderous  melee  St.  James  scrambled  to 
his  knees  and  prayed,  saying:  "I  entreat  thee,  O  Lord 
God!  O,  Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  what* 
they  do."  Thereupon  a  Rechabite  of  priestly  rank 
entreated  the  rabble  to  spare  the  "just  one."  But, 


146  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

instead,  one  of  their  number  seized  a  fuller's  club  and 
smote  out  the  brains  of  the  venerable  servant  of  God. 
They  buried  him,  we  are  told,  beside  the  sanctuary  he 
had  loved  long  and  well. 

Josephus  was  not  alone  in  the  belief  that  this  killing 
of  St.  James  was  one  of  the  principal  causes  of  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem.  At  any  rate,  it  was  the 
beginning  of  an  end  that  was  tragical  beyond  precedent 
or  parallel. 

If  the  martyrdom  of  St.  James  occurred,  as  is  most 
probable,  in  the  year  63,  then  short  shrift  was  granted 
that  untoward  generation.  Seven  years  thereafter  the 
destruction  of  the  city  was  completed.  Not  only  was 
the  Temple  burned  to  the  ground,  but  its  foundations 
were  upturned  by  the  plowshares,  the  walls  of  the  city 
were  leveled,  and  its  gates  dismantled.  Such  of  its 
inhabitants  as  escaped  the  sword  and  the  pestilences 
and  the  famine  were  "parted  and  scattered"  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth.  The  nobler  captives  were  reserved 
to  grace  the  triumph  at  Rome,  but  many  thousands 
were  sold  into  abject  slavery.  By  such  methods  did 
the  Most  High  avenge  the  quarrel  of  His  violated 
covenant. 

But  after  all,  this  terrible  destruction  was  "  the  bring 
ing  in  of  a  better  hope."  Christian  Judaism,  as  inculcated 
by  St.  James,  would  have  been  of  necessity  provincial. 
Like  Mohammedanism,  it  would  have  been  no  less  than 
Buddhism  or  Brahmanism,  one  of  the  ethnic  religions 
of  the  world.  Christianity  must  have  a  wider  area  and 
a  broader  field  for  its  activities.  Henceforth  the  great 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES.  147 

commission,  "  Go  ye  into  all  the  world,"  became  in  a 
higher  sense  than  even  the  apostles  as  yet  understood 
it,  the  marching  orders  of  the  Church  militant.  And 
now  there  are  signs,  neither  dim  nor  dubious,  that  the 
twentieth  century  will  see 

Jesus  enthroned  where'er  the  sun 
Does  the  successive  journeys  run. 

Let  the  Church  universal  respond:      "Amen!  even 
so  come,  Lord  Jesus." 


PAUL,  APOSTLE  OF  THE  GENTILES. 

No  careful  student  of  the  New  Testament  has  failed 
to  note  what  Archdeacon  Farrar  has  styled  the  "dia 
lectical  method"  of  St.  Paul  as  contrasted  with  the 
"intuitive  method"  of  St.  John.  This  difference  is 
properly  emphasized  by  Conybeare  &  Howson  in  their 
elaborate  work  on  the  "Life  and  Epistles  of  St.  Paul," 
the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles.  It  indeed  may  be  said  that 
even  a  casual  reading  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles  will  suffice 
to  show  that  he  was  thoroughly  argumentative  in  his 
intellectual  trend,  leaving  us  to  infer  that  the  school  at 
Tarsus  was  not  less  affected  by  the  methods  of  Aristotle 
than  was  the  Alexandrian  philosophy  by  the  impress  of 
Plato,  the  foremost  pupil  of  the  illustrious  Socrates. 
The  Apostle's  later  training  at  O.e  feet  of  Gamaliel, 
"  the  glory  of  the  law, "  did  not  efface  these  marks  of 
Greek  culture.  So  far  indeed  is  this  from  the  exact 
truth  that  Paul's  speech  before  Agrippa  might  have  been 
delivered  by  Demosthenes  in  the  Pnyx  at  Athens,  and 


148  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

his  address  on  Mars'  Hill  was  worthy  of  Eschines,  who 
was  only  inferior  to  that  great  rival  whose  oratory 

Fulmined  over  Greece 
To  Macedon  and  Artaxerxes'  throne. 

One  of  the  Fathers  has  said  that  "if  Stephen  had  not 
prayed  Paul  would  not  have  preached."  This  is  clearly 
an  unwarrantable  limitation  of  Divine  Providence  and 
gospel  grace.  God,  in  the  accomplishment  of  His  pur 
poses,  is  not  shut  up  by  Procrustean  methods  or  meas 
urements.  Nor  does  it  matter  in  the  least  whether 
Paul's  notable  conversion  was  due  to  the  prayer  of  Ste 
phen  or  the  thunderbolt  that  smote  him  in  the  way  to 
Damascus  Whatever  the  cause,  the  contrast  was  none 
the  less  striking  between  the  hot-blooded  Sanhedrimist 
demanding  Lctlres  de  Cachet  to  Damascus  and  the 
Brother  Saul  who,  afterward,  at  the  bidding  of  Ananias, 
rose  up  and  was  baptized  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 
We  have  always  regarded  this  conversion  of  St.  Paul  as 
next  to  the  resurrection  of  Christ — the  strongest  of  the 
Christian  evidences.  I  have  long  ceased  to  wonder  that 
Lord  Lyttelton,  a  jurist  of  much  celebrity,  was  himself 
converted  by  the  patient  and  honest  investigation  of  this 
"strange  and  eventful  history."  Nor  do  we  wonder 
that  the  Apostle  made  it  the  text  and  the  argument  of 
his  mightiest  appeals  to  Jew  and  Gentile.  The  miracles 
concerning  which  Hume  made  such  a  persistent  pother 
were  polemical,  and,  while  they  served  an  admirable 
purpose,  they  were  of  necessity  local  in  their  sphere 
and  transitory  in  their  influence.  Not  so  with  the  con 
version  of  St.  Paul,  an  event  of  world-wide  significance 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES.  149 

Nor  did  that  event  fail  to  impress  alike  the  first  and  all 
succeeding  generations  of  religious  thinkers.  Viewed 
in  the  light  of  subsequent  developments,  it  was  indeed 
a  pivotal  event  in  the  future  history  of  the  Church. 

In  an  age  of  controversy,  when  Jew  and  Greek  were 
to  be  confronted  and  confounded,  not  by  a  philosophy, 
but  by  the  foolishness  of  preaching,  it  was  fortunate 
that  St.  Paul  was  the  "chosen  vessel"  to  accomplish 
these  great  purposes.  This  matter  of  preaching  was 
not  altogether  a  new  departure.  Ezra,  the  Scribe,  soon 
after  the  return  of  Israel  from  their  captivity,  had  his 
pulpit  whence  he  hurled  "the  thunder  of  the  violated 
law."  John  the  Baptist  crying  in  the  wilderness,  and 
Peter  lifting  up  his  voice  at  Pentecost,  had  demonstrated 
that  there  was  an  energy  in  the  spoken  word  vastly 
transcending  the  power  of  the  written  word. 

But  the  time  had  arrived  when  the  field  of  apostolic 
labor  must  be  enlarged.  Not  otherwise  could  the  king 
doms  of  this  world  become  the  kingdoms  oi  our  Lord 
and  His  Christ.  St.  Paul  was  quick  to  perceive  the 
necessity,  and  accordingly  his  circuit  was  extended 
from  Jerusalem  round  about  unto  Illyricum.  Afterward, 
if  we  may  trust  well-authenticated  tradition,  he  pressed 
westward  and  northward  until  he  passed  the  pillars  of 
Hercules  and  planted  Christianity  in  Britain,  the  ultima 
thule  of  ancient  geography.  Why,  indeed,  might  not 
an  apostle,  thoroughly  alive  to  the  claims  of  the  gospel, 
follow,  for  the  sake  of  souls,  wherever  a  Phenician  navi 
gator  had  gone  in  quest  of  tin  and  copper.  And  this 
leads  us  quite  naturally  to  speak  of  Paul  as  a  preacher. 


I5O  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

We  have  always  found  it  somewhat  difficult  to  reconcile 
the  scriptural  account  of  his  evangelistic  successes  at 
Ephesus,  Corinth,  Thessalonica,  and  other  chief  cities 
with  the  criticism  of  his  enemies  that  his  bodily  pres 
ence  was  weak  and  his  speech  contemptible.  Much  has 
been  said  of  sundry  physical  ailments  of  the  great 
Apostle.  Sometimes  it  is  stated  that  he  suffered  with 
ophthalmia  or  other  eye  disease,  brought  on  by  expo 
sure  to  the  intense  light  and  heat  of  a  Syrian  sea.  Others 
speak  of  his  liability  to  epileptic  seizures,  as  were 
Mohammed  and  Bonaparte.  This  is  given  as  a  reason 
why  Luke,  the  beloved  physician,  was  his  frequent 
traveling  companion.  Whether  there  is  more  than  a 
coloring  of  truth  in  these  statements  is  fairly  question 
able.  His  long  and  frequent  journeyings  by  land  and 
sea,  his  exposure  to  and  endurance  of  perils  and  hard 
ships  in  city  and  wilderness,  all  are  clearly  incompatible 
with  the  idea  that  he  was  a  physical  wreck,  or  even  a 
constitutional  invalid.  There  is  a  moral  certainty  that, 
like  Zaccheus,  he  was  small  of  stature,  and  that  for  this 
reason  he  exchanged  the  name  of  Saul,  suggestive  of 
precocity — for  that  of  Paul,  which  signifies  little.  But 
Palmerston,  we  know,  was  under  the  regulation  size,  and 
so  was  Douglas,  of  Illinois  ;  nor  can  you  in  any  age  of 
the  world  measure  true  manhood  with  a  yardstick.  But 
all  this  concerns  only  the  outward  man  which  perisheth 
— intellectually  he  was  the  grandest  of  men,  and  as  a 
moral  force  scarcely  equaled  in  the  annals  of  the  race. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  Paul,  who  kept  the  clothes  of 
those  who  slew  Stephen,  should  have  caught  no  little 


CHARACTER    SKETCHES.  15  I 

of  the  manner  and  the  matter  also  of  the  protomartyr. 
St.  Paul's  defense  before  the  great  council  at  Jerusalem 
bears  a  striking  resemblance  to  Stephen's  defense 
before  the  same  august  tribunal.  There  is  the  same 
wealth  of  illustration  drawn  from  the  Jewish  Scrip 
tures,  the  same  mighty  appeal,  enforced  by  a  like  impet 
uous  oratory.  Paul  never  at  any  time  dallied  or  drawled. 
As  has  been  said  of  Luther,  and  also  of  honest  Hugh 
Latimer,  his  very  words  were  "half-battles,"  or  rather 
they  might  be  likened  to  ponderous  stones  hurled  from 
an  ancient  catapult.  There  was  in  his  speech  the  utter 
absence  of  that  flippancy  that  pleases  "itching  ears," 
but  instead  directness  and  impressiveness  which  roused 
and  thrilled  like  a  trumpet.  I  have  been  told  that  Mr. 
Calhoun  was  heard  to  say  on  more  than  one  occasion 
that  the  great  Apostle  was  at  times  an  inconclusive 
reasoner.  We  see  no  proof  of  this  either  in  his  epistles 
or  sermons.  Least  of  all  do  we  find  it  in  his  masterly 
discourse  on  the  resurrection  ol  the  dead,  which  Strauss 
thought  was  open  to  a  like  adverse  criticism.  This 
German  neologist  refers  particularly  to  the  Apostle's 
reply  to  the  question,  "How  are  the  dead  raised  up, 
and  with  what  body  do  they  come?"  "Thou  fool," 
says  St.  Paul,  "that  which  thou  sowest  is  not  quickened 
except  it  die."  Whereupon  Strauss  alleges  that  the 
very  opposite  of  this  statement  is  true,  and  proceeds  to 
twit  the  Apostle  with  his  utter  ignorance  of  vegetable 
physiology.  What  solemn  trifling  is  here,  when  we 
keep  in  mind  that  Paul  employs  this  striking  analogy 
not  in  its  technical  sense,  but  according  to  popular 


152  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

usage.  What  astronomer  (Newton  or  Herschel)  does 
not  speak  of  the  sun  rising  and  setting,  according  to  the 
vernacular  of  the  multitude,  although  even  Strauss 
would  not  venture  to  suggest  that  either  was  ignorant 
of  the  fact  that  the  sun  was  stationary. 

But  no  better  vindication  of  the  Apostle's  great  argu 
ment  could  be  devised  than  the  fact  that  it  has  with 
stood,  like  a  massive  sea-wall,  the  flood  of  infidel  cavil 
and  criticism  that  has  beaten  against  it  throughout  the 
Christian  centuries.  In  spite  of  these  assaults,  its  defi 
ant  challenge:  "  O  death,  where  is  thy  sting?  O  grave, 
where  is  thy  victory?"  has  been  the  strength  and  stay 
of  the  dying  Christian  as  he  walked  unhurt  and  undis 
mayed  through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death. 

Take  that  other  great  argument  on  justification  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans,  and  where  will  you  find  the 
record  of  its  refutation  ?  It  was  the  key-note  of  that 
Reformation  that  shook  Europe  from  the  Orkneys  to 
Calabria.  Even  in  this  age  of  "higher  criticism,"  and 
also  of  the  projected  revision  of  creeds,  few  men  of 
note  will  be  found  to  attack  the  Apostle's  postulate: 
"Therefore,  being  justified  by  faith,  we  have  peace 
with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

We  know  very  well  that  from  the  first  century  to  the 
present  time  St.  Paul  has  been  charged  with  corrupting 
Christianity  Late  infidel  writers  allege  that  he  laid 
undue  stress  on  dogma,  and  that  the  controversial  tone 
that  pervades  the  epistles  has  obscured  the  milder 
spiritual  effulgence  of  the  Fourth  Gospel,  and  almost 
hidden  from  view  the  ethics  of  the  Sermon  on  the 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES.  153 

Mount.  We  are  not  unduly  wedded  to  dogmatic  the 
ology  ;  yet,  without  proper  emphasis  of  Christian  doc 
trine,  our  ministry  and  membership  are  sure  to  drift 
into  Broad-churchism.  What  would  become  of  Geome 
try  without  its  axioms  and  definitions?  And  what 
would  be  the  fate  of  Christianity  without  such  rigorous 
statement  of  these  much-abused  and  much-dreaded  dog 
mata  as  St.  Paul  has  made  prominent  in  his  greater 
epistles? 

There  is  yet  a  more  inviting  aspect  of  St.  Paul's 
character,  which  will  amply  repay  our  consideration. 
We  refer  to  his  religious  characteristics  These  best 
appear  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Philippians.  Between  him 
and  the  saints  at  Philippi  there  existed  a  closer  bond  of 
sympathy  than  with  any  of  the  apostolic  churches.  In 
this  epistle  we  note  especially  his  humility — as  when  he 
says,  "I  count  not  myself  to  have  apprehended;"  nor 
does  he  reckon  himself  as  "already  perfect.''  There  is 
here  no  morbid  self-depreciation,  but  such  humility  as  is 
befitting  the  chiefest  of  the  apostles  Indeed  it  is  only 
the  wise  man  who  best  knows  the  limitations  of  human 
knowledge  So  it  is  likewise  the  genuinely  good  man 
who  is  most  conscious  of  the  limitations  of  human  good 
ness.  Even  in  his  maturity  of  wisdom  and  saintliness 
he  is  "reaching  forth,''  and  still  with  undiminished 
ardor  and  unstinted  effort  "pressing  toward  the  mark 
for  the  prize  of  the  high  calling.''  How  this  humility, 
only  in  a  measure  less  than  the  meekness  of  Christ,  is 
fitted  to  "chasten  ever  lofty  imagination,"  and  even 
"pour  contempt  on  all  our  pride!"  As  John  Newton 


154  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL 

was  humbled  to  the  very  dust  when  he  thought  of  him 
self  as  once  the  "old  African  slave-trader,"  so  Paul  was 
deeply  humiliated  when  he  recalled  the  former  days  in 
which  he  had  roamed  like  an  evening  wolf,  and  breathed 
out  threatenings  and  slaughter  against  the  disciples  of 
the  Lord  Jesus. 

But  there  is  still  another  feature  of  his  character 
which  Mr  Fletcher  brings  out  in  his  "Portrait  of  St. 
Paul."  We  refer  to  his  gentleness.  Read  his  Epistle 
to  Philemon,  wherein  he  pleads  so  piteously  for  Ones- 
mius,  the  fugitive  slave,  whom  he  had  "begotten  in  his 
bonds."  Study  that  scene  by  the  sea-side  at  Miletus, 
and  ponder  well  his  tender  leave-taking  of  the  elders  of 
Ephesus.  If  you  had  for  a  single  instant  supposed  that 
St.  Paul  was  an  austere  and  unsympathetic  man,  revise 
your  estimate  while  you  read  the  pastoral  letter  to  Tim 
othy,  his  "son  in  the  gospel,"  and  to  Titus,  the  first 
Bishop  of  Crete. 

There  remains  another  feature  of  St.  Paul's  character 
which  we  must  not  overlook,  if  we  would  have  a  clear- 
cut  conception  of  this  great  apostle.  With  all  his 
humility  and  tenderness  there  was  a  courage  that  never 
faltered  in  any  extremity  of  his  eventful  career.  Stoned 
and  dragged  forth  for  dead  at  the  gate  of  Lystra, 
fighting  with  wild  beasts  in  the  arena  at  Ephesus,  tossed 
for  three  consecutive  days  on  Adria,  wrestling  with 
infuriated  mobs  at  divers  times  and  places — never  on 
any  occasion  did  he  so  much  as  lose  his  self-possession. 
But  never  was  this  moral  courage  more  severely  tested 
than  at  his  second  and  final  hearing  before  Nero.  For- 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES.  155 

saken  by  friends,  but  strengthened  by  the  Lord,  he 
bore  himself  not  less  grandly  than  Luther  at  the  Diet 
of  Worms.  But  what  of  his  last  hours,  as  he  was  shut 
up  alone  amidst  the  stench  and  darkness  and  every 
other  conceivable  discomfort  of  a  Roman  prison  ?  His 
second  Epistle  to  Timothy  is  supposed  to  have  been 
written  from  this  confinement.  Perhaps  those  last 
words,  "I  am  now  ready  to  be  offered,"  etc.,  were 
written  by  a  dim  rush-light  furnished  him  by  his  jailer. 
What  trust,  what  resignation,  what  hope  breathes 
through  these  words:  "I  have  fought  a  good  fight;  I 
have  kept  the  faith.  Henceforth  there  is  a  crown  of 
righteousness  (brighter  and  better  than  any  earthly 
diadem)  laid  up  for  me  and  for  all  that  love  His 
appearing !  " 

Here  we  let  the  curtain  fall.  No  need  to  follow  him 
to  the  place  of  doom  and  death  on  the  historic  Appian 
Way.  "  No  prophet,"  said  Jesus,  "  can  perish  out  of 
Jerusalem."  But  an  apostle,  the  greatest  of  them  all, 
went  through  the  city  gates,  bearing  his  cross  as  did 
the  Master.  Swordsman,  do  thy  work  well,  and  do  it 
quickly.  For,  lo  ! 

Cherubic  legions  are  ready  to  guard  him  home 
And  shout  him  welcome  to  the  skies. 

O,  thou  tent-maker  of  Tarsus !  thou  wast  indeed  a 
valiant  worker  in  the  vineyard ;  and  now,  while  the 
bells  ring  glad  paeans  from  every  turret  and  tower  of  the 
golden  city,  "  enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord." 


156  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 


AN  HOUR'S  TALK  WITH  A  SEA  CAPTAIN, 


When  the  gallant  10,000  that  followed  the  standard 
of  Xenophon  in  his  Cyrus  expedition  caught  their  first 
glimpse  of  the  ocean  they  shouted,  "The  sea!  The 
sea!"  with  unspeakable  rapture.  It  was  only  a  less 
degree  of  joyousness  that  I  felt  when,  from  the  deck  of 
an  ocean  steamer,  I  got  my  first  distinct  view  of  the 
broad  and  billowy  Atlantic.  I  had  read  books  of  voy 
ages  by  the  score  before  ever  I  had  known  the  need  of 
a  razor.  Marryat  and  Cooper  were  favorite  novelists 
with  me  in  my  boyhood.  I  still  retain  a  lively  remem 
brance  of  Long  Tom  Coffin,  the  typical  boatswain,  and 
of  the  striking  adventures  of  the  Red  Rover.  Not  un- 
frequently  I  dreamed  at  nights  of  the  "vasty  deep," 
ploughed  by  those  mighty  ships  that  "weave  the  conti 
nents  together. "  Such,  indeed,  was  my  boyish  enthu 
siasm  that  I  have  often  thought  that  if  I  had  been  reared 
at  a  seaport,  I  might  have  started  in  life  as  a  stowaway, 
and  not  as  a  beardless  student  of  Blackstone. 

I  gravely  question  if  Byron  was  ever  conscious  of  a 
greater  yearning  "to  lay  his  hand  upon  old  ocean's 
mane  and  ever  wanton  with  its  breakers,"  and  yet,  after 
all,  I  was  the  veriest  lubber  in  a  half  dozen  States. 

J  had  reached  my  majority  before  I  had  ever  snuffed 
the  salt  sea  gale,  or  glimpsed  at  a  single  brood  of 
Mother  Carey's  chickens. 


AN   HOUR'S  TALK  WITH  A  SEA  CAPTAIN.  157 

During  my  first  and  only  storm  at  sea  I  fully  realized 
my  utter  unfitness  for  a  sea-faring  life.  How  I  longed 
for  a  foothold  on  terra  firma.  As  I  lay  in  my  berth  at 
midnight,  and  heard  the  stout  ship  struggling  with  a 
heavy  sea,  and  felt  her  quiver  from  stem  to  stern,  I 
recalled  with  vividness  the  ode  of  Horace,  in  which  he 
berates  the  folly  of  the  man  who  first  tempted  the 
"  treacherous  sea."  But  somehow  I  still  have  a  fancy 
for  the  legends  of  the  forecastle,  and  have  never  lost 
interest  in  the  marvels  and  mysteries  of  the  deep  sea. 
Men  that  have  gone  down  "to  the  sea  in  ships"  still 
have  a  hold  on  my  sympathy  and  veneration,  and  none 
more  so  than  Captain  J.  Mclntosh  Kell,  our  present 
efficient  Adjutant-General.  Look  at  him  with  his 
broad,  Scotch  face,  and  his  reddish  hair,  which  betoken 
a  "  vera  brither  "  of  Rob  Roy  or  some  better  highland 
chieftain. 

It  was  he  that  fought  the  Alabama  against  the  Kear- 
sarge  off  the  French  port  of  Cherbourg.  A  wooden 
ship  against  an  ironclad — the  latter  having  the  heavier 
battery  and  a  larger  crew.  The  contest  was  as  unequal 
as  if  a  light-weight  pugilist  should  enter  the  ring  with 
his  bare  knuckles  to  exchange  blows  with  a  heavy 
weight  with  a  mailed  hand. 

"How  did  it  happen,"  I  inquired  of  Captain  Kell, 
a  few  days  ago,  "that  you  sailed  out  of  port  to  fight 
against  such  odds?'' 

"Well,''  he  replied,  "  you  must  remember  that  we 
could  not  have  remained  much  longer  in  Cherbourg 
without  going  into  dock.  This  would  have  demoralized 


158  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

and  probably  dispersed  our  crew,  and  thus  greatly  em 
barrassed  us  in  all  our  future  efforts  to  cripple  the  com 
merce  of  the  enemy.  Another  consideration  which 
was  not  without  weight,  was  that  the  alternative  offered 
us  was  either  to  fight  the  Kearsarge  singly,  or  to  delay 
and  fight  her  and  such  reinforcements  as  she  was  sure 
to  receive  in  a  few  days.  But,  besides,  we  did  not 
know  that  she  was  an  armored  ship  until  Admiral 
Semmes,  who  was  in  the  rigging,  noticed  that  neither 
our  shells  nor  our  solid  shot  made  any  impression,  but 
fell  off  into  the  water.  We  did,  it  is  true,  plant  a 
hundred-pound  shell  in  her  stern-post,  and  but  for  a 
defective  fuse,  that  single  shot  might  have  disabled  our 
enemy  or  sent  her  to  the  bottom.  Once  into  the  fight, 
we  must  needs  make  the  best  possible  of  a  bad 
situation." 

"  Did  they  fire  on  you,  Captain,  after  you  had  hauled 
down  your  colors  ?  " 

"Most  assuredly;  they  poured  several  broadsides 
into  the  Alabama  after  we  had  surrendered.  A  num 
ber  of  our  gallant  seamen  were  killed  and  wounded  by 
this  murderous  fire." 

"When  it  became  evident  that  the  Alabama  was 
sinking,  did  they  make  an  honest  effort  to  save  your 
men  who  had  leaped  overboard?" 

"By  no  means.  They  did  pick  up  a  few,  but  the 
loss  of  life  would  have  been  much  greater  if  it  had  not 
been  for  the  magnanimous  conduct  of  the  English 
yacht,  the  Deerhound,  which  had  come  out  of  Cher 
bourg  to  witness  the  engagement. 


AN  HOUR  S  TALK  WITH  A  SEA   CAPTAIN. 

"Mr.  Seward  demanded  of  the  English  Government 
the  extradition  of  the  rescued  officers  and  crew,  but 
Lord  John  Russell  met  the  demand  with  a  prompt 
refusal. 

"Distinguished  officers  of  the  British  army  and  navy 
presented  Admiral  Semmes  with  a  splendid  sword  as 
some  compensation  for  the  loss  of  the  one  that  went 
down  with  the  Alabama." 

After  a  breathing  spell,  I  said  to  Captain  Kell : 
"What  and  where  was  your  roughest  experience  with 
storms?" 

The  veteran  thought  a  moment  and  answered : 

"The  worst  storm  I  ever  encountered  was  off  the 
banks  of  Newfoundland,  where  the  Yankees  and  the 
Kanucks  catch  cod.  In  the  East  it  would  have  been 
called  a  typhoon.  It  belonged  to  the  same  class  of 
rotary  storms  that  are  named  tornadoes,  cyclones,  etc., 
in  different  parts  of  the  world.  This  one  held  us  in  its 
grasp  for  six  or  seven  hours,  and  beat  and  battered  us 
most  unmercifully.  It  so  happened,  however,  that  the 
center  or  vortex  of  the  storm  passed  over  us,  and  then 
we  were  suddenly  becalmed.  When  in  this  vortex  the 
mercury  in  the  barometer,  which  just  before  the  storm 
had  sunk  nearly  to  twenty-eight  inches,  immediately 
began  to  rise.  During  this  lull  Admiral  Semmes 
ordered  a  storm  sail  to  be  set,  as  we  knew  we  would 
catch  the  storm  in  a  few  minutes  from  the  opposite 
quarter.  It  would  be  impossible  to  convey  an  adequate 
idea  of  the  fury  of  this  terrible  typhoon.  Our  main- 


I6O  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

yard  was  snapped  like  a   pipestem  and   our  sails  were 
rent  into  ribbons. 

"We  estimated  that  this  vast  revolving  atmospheric 
cylinder  had  a  radius  of  about  fifty  miles.  Eolus,  or 
the  satan  of  the  book  of  Job,  or  whoever  else  is  'the 
prince  of  the  powers  of  the  air,'  fairly  churned  the  sea 
into  a  blinding  and  almost  stifling  spray." 

"I  find,"  said  I  to  the  Captain,  "that  in  Semmes'  vol 
ume,  'Memoirs  of  Service  Afloat,'  you  were  once  court- 
martialed  for  mutiny  and  disobedience  to  orders." 

"  Thereby, "  said  our  interlocutor,  "  hangs  a  tale.  At 
the  time  referred  to  I  held  the  rank  of  passed  midship 
man  on  the  war  sloop  Albany,  Captain  Victor  Ran 
dolph,  of  Virginia,  commanding.  Lieutenant  Randolph 
ordered  me,  in  a  rather  peremptory  manner,  to  light  a 
candle  and  carry  it  to  the  cabin.  Now,  you  must 
remember,  that  I  was  not  only,  as  a  youngster  would  be, 
a  little  proud  of  my  rank,  but  I  had  in  my  veins  also  a 
little  of  the  rebel  blood  that  made  my  ancestors,  the 
Mclntoshes,  fight  against  the  house  of  Hanover  at  Pres 
ton  Paus  and  Culloden.  The  military  disaster  that  fol 
lowed  the  latter  event  led  some  of  them  to  come  to 
Darien,  in  this  State,  shortly  before  our  revolutionary 
troubles  began.  I  refused  to  obey  the  Lieutenant's 
order  because  I  esteemed  it  a  menial  service.  In  spite, 
however,  of  Lieutenant  Raphael  Semmes'  able  defense 
of  me  before  the  court-martial,  I  was  dismissed  from  the 
navy.  A  year  afterwards,  through  the  influence  of 
Senator  Berrien  and  Mr.  Toombs,  I  was  reinstated  with 
my  former  rank,  with  only  the  loss  of  my  year's  pay,. 


AN   HOUR'S  TALK  WITH  A  SEA  CAPTAIN.  l6l 

which,  in  those  days,  was  to  me  a  mere  bagatelle.  I 
feel  it  due  to  myself  to  say  that  I  had  the  full  sympathy 
of  my  brother  passed  midshipmen,  and,  indeed,  most  of 
the  officers  and  all  the  crew." 

"  I  think,  Captain,"  I  continued,  "  that  you  took 
part  ir  the  capture  of  California  during  the  Mexican 
war." 

"Yes,"  he  rejoined,  "I  was  a  Lieutenant  on  board 
the  frigate  Savannah,  the  flagship  of  Commodore  Slote, 
of  the  Pacific  squadron.  We  landed  at  Monterey  and 
in  a  solemn  manner  unfurled  the  American  flag,  and  by 
this  imposing  ceremony  took  possession  of  the  country. 
This,  in  the  parlance  of  the  lawyers,  was  a  kind  of 
wholesale  livery  of  seizin.  Of  course  the  affair  would 
have  been  farcical,  but  for  the  fact,  that  we  were  backed 
by  the  whole  power,  military  and  naval,  of  the  govern 
ment." 

"Were  you  not,"  we  asked,  "with  Commodore  Per 
ry  when  he  negotiated  the  first  treaty  of  commerce  with 
the  Japanese  ?" 

"  Yes,"  he  replied,  "  I  was  on  board  of  the  Susque- 
hanna,  one  of  the  best  ships  of  our  East  India  squad 
ron.  It  was  an  historical  occasion,  when  we  landed 
over  1,000  marines  on  the  coast  of  Jeddo,  one  of  the 
largest  islands  of  the  Japanese  group.  Hard  by,  with 
heavy  guns  bearing  on  the  island,  was  our  fleet,  com 
posed  of  seven  of  the  best  ships  of  the  old  navy.  In  a 
unique  building,  elevated  for  the  purpose,  Commodore 
Perry,  with  his  staff,  met  the  representatives  of  the 

Tycoon — the  brother  of  the  sun,  the  first  cousin  of  the 
11 


l62  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

moon,  and  the  near  kinsman  of  innumerable  stars,  with 
a  few  comets  thrown  in  for  good  measure.  There  was 
about  that  affair  but  little  of  the  red-tapism  of  Downing 
street.  Our  gallant  Perry  being  a  plain,  blunt  man,  with 
an  eye  for  business,  it  did  not  require  much  diplomatic 
palaver  to  break  the  seal  of  seclusion  that  had  for  so 
long  a  time  isolated  Japan  from  western  civilization. 
The  little  Dutch  trading  port  at  Nagasaki  was  lost  sight 
of,  and  the  best  ports  of  the  empire  were  henceforth 
open  to  American  commerce. 

'  'We  begin  now  to  reap  the  reward  of  that  naval  enter 
prise  in  the  vast  increase  of  commercial  exchanges,  and 
in  the  rapid  growth  of  Christianity  in  a  country  where,  a 
half  century  ago,  children  were  taught  to  trample  on  the 
cross,  the  despised  symbol  of  the  Christian  faith." 

"What  about  the  superstitions  of  the  sailor  and  the 
crossing  of  the  line,  concerning  which  we  formerly  read 
so  much  in  the  old  story  books  of  the  nursery?" 

"Well,"  replied  the  Captain,  "these  are  passing 
away  as  the  years  go  by.  Old  Neptune,  armed  with 
his  trident,  rarely  comes  up  the  ship's  side  as  in  former 
times,  to  the  consternation  of  the  fresh  water  sailors  and 
the  younger  middies.  The  a\erage  sailor,  however, 
has  not  yet  overcome  his  aversion  to  leaving  port  on 
Friday,  nor  his  dislike  to  carrying  a  dead  body  on  ship 
board." 

"What  have  you  to  say  about  the  qualities  of  the 
American  sailor?" 

"  Only  this — that  the  thoroughbred  downeaster  is  the 
best  seaman  that  sails  the  ocean.  He  is  handy  and 


AN  HOUR'S  TALK   WITH  A  SEA  CAPTAIN.  163 

trusty,  and  has  little  dread  of  storms  or  shells.  Next 
to  him,  and  in  special  directions  superior  to  him,  is  the 
British  tar,  who  followed  Nelson  and  Collingwood  in 
their  great  ocean  victories.  Comparatively  few  sailors 
are  of  Southern  birth  or  blood,  but  some  of  the  best 
men  on  the  Sumter  and  Alabama  were  shipped  at 
Charleston  and  Savannah.  Not  a  few  of  the  best  naval 
officers  in  the  Yankee  service  during  the  late  war  were 
Southern  men.  Of  these  we  name  Farragut  and  Hewitt. 
Indeed,  the  great  body  of  our  Southern  born  naval  offi 
cers,  from  Maryland  to  Texas,  followed  the  leader 
ship  of  Rollins  and  Raphael  Semmes,  and  that  '  old 
sea  dog,'  Tatnall,  who  cast  their  lot  with  their  native 
Southland.  The  record  they  made  with  the  Merrimac, 
the  Sumter,  the  Shenandoah,  and,  above  all,  with  the 
peerless  and  ill-fated  Alabama,  is  one  of  which  their 
countrymen  need  not  be  ashamed." 

But  the  noble  old  sea-fighter  must  hurry  off  to  Sun- 
nyside,  where  his  noble  wife  and  only  son,  the  future 
admiral,  await  his  coming. 

At  the  risk  of  incurring  Captain  Kell's  displeasure  we 
reproduce,  without  his  knowledge,  a  letter  from  his  old 
commander  addressed  to  his  godson,  the  little  boy 
already  referred  to  in  the  foregoing  sentence.  It  pre 
sents  Admiral  Semmes  in  a  new  role,  and  shows  that  a 
great  man  may  have  on  occasion  the  simplicity  and  gen 
tleness  of  a  little  child  : 

MOBILE,  ALA.,  May  6,  1870. 

MY  DEAR  LITTLE  GODSON  :— I  have  received  your  little  let 
ter,  together  with  your  likeness.  You  have  grown  to  be  quite 


164  HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

a  little  man  since  I  saw  you.  You  are  no  doubt  acquiring  to 
learn  to  spell,  and  by-and-by  you  will  be  a  "big  boy"  and  go 
to  school.  I  am  sorry  to  hear  that  your  papa  is  not  very  well. 
Tell  mamma  to  take  good  care  of  him.  In  the  meantime  you 
must  be  a  good  little  boy  and  do  all  papa  and  mamma  tell  your 
so  that  you  may  grow  up  to  be  a  man  like  your  papa. 
Your  affectionate  godfather, 

R.  SEMMES. 


PARAGRAPHIC  PENCILINGS. 


PARAGRAPHIC  PENCILINGS, 


The  telescope  was  the  first  optical  instrument  to 
familiarize  us  with  the  vastness  of  the  universe.  In  the 
presence  of  such  immense  distances  and  incomprehen 
sible  magnitudes  as  it  reveals  we  stand  awe-struck  and 
almost  paralyzed.  But  a  later  invention,  the  micro 
scope,  has  brought  within  the  range  of  human  vision  a 
countless  multitude  of  vegetable  and  animal  organisms 
that  overwhelm  us  by  their  minuteness. 

A  solitary  blade  of  grass  is  the  abode  of  a  vast  bacte 
rial  population,  and  a  single  raindrop  from  a  summer 
cloud  has  stored  up  in  it  the  potencies  of  a  thunder 
storm.  A  small  cake  of  yeast  will  develop  millions  of 
fermentative  cells,  nor  would  there  be  any  assignable 
limit  to  their  reproduction,  were  it  not  arrested  by  the 
heat  of  the  baker's  oven.  These  infinitesimal  forces  are 
at  work  everywhere.  Those  tiny  insects,  the  corals, 
that  build  up  continents  and  islands  from  such  depths 
as  the  plummet  of  the  Challenger  never  reached,  are 
of  mammoth-like  proportions  compared  with  the  bacilli 
which  wield  such  an  influence  on  human  health  and 
happiness. 

This  remark  brings  us  face  to  face  with  the  greatest 
medical  discovery  since  the  days  of  Edward  Jenner. 
Of  course,  we  refer  to  Dr.  Koch's  discovery  of  the 


l68  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

bacillus  which  produces  lupus,  tuberculosis  and  kindred 
diseases.  It  has  been  achieved  in  spite  of  criticism  and 
personal  discomfort  Not  only  has  it  been  sneered  at 
by  fae ptofanttm  vulgus,  but  by  jealous  scientists,  and 
yet  it  will  solve  important  problems  and  both  promote 
health  and  prolong  life.  As  yet  the  treatment  is  in  its 
infancy,  but  coming  generations  will  honor  the  memory 
of  that  illustrious  German,  wheat  one  time  expatriated 
himself  and  at  another  immured  himself  in  the  labora 
tory  that  he  might  prosecute  his  researches.  Thus  one 
by  one  the  storehouse  of  nature  is  yielding  its  precious 
secrets,  and  this  widening  of  the  domain  of  knowledge 
will  go  forward  tor  centuries.  Who  can  measure  the 
results  of  the  recent  exploration  of  the  dark  continent? 
Hitherto  its  material  products  have  been  chiefly  gold 
and  ivory.  But  now  that  the  higher  races  have  under 
taken  its  development,  we  may  look  for  marvelous  dis 
coveries  that  may  make  it  the  richest,  as  it  is  the  oldest, 
of  the  five  great  continents.  Here  we  might  call  a  halt, 
and  still  we  have  said  nothing  of  electricity,  that  Ariel 
of  the  chemist's  laboratory.  What  strides  it  has  made 
since  Franklin  was  flying  his  kite  over  Boston  Common  ! 
Already  it  seems  destined  to  supplant  steam  as  a  motor. 
Even  now  it  lights  our  streets  and  dwellings,  and  very 
soon  will  warm  our  bedchambers  and  cook  our  meals. 
It  has  revolutionized,  in  a  degree,  some  of  the  useful 
arts,  and  is  stretching  forth  its  Briarean  hands  to  new 
conquests  in  other  industrial  fields.  Only  that  Omnis 
cient  Eye  that  sees  the  end  from  the  beginning  can  fore 
cast  the  possibilities  of  its  future. 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  169 

At  one  period  of  his  life,  David,  the  valiant  son  of 
Jesse,  was  not  less  an  outlaw  than  Robin  Hood,  of 
Sherwood  Forest.  For  months  he  was  hunted  like  a 
partridge  on  the  mountains  by  Saul  and  his  soldiery. 
But  he  was  reserved  to  a  kingly  destiny  and  became  the 
Napoleon  of  his  age. 

It  was  in  the  earlier  days  of  his  eventful  life  that 
an  incident  occurred  which  gives  us  a  glimpse  of  his 
nobility  of  character.  On  one  occasion  he  was  seized 
with  a  passionate  longing  for  a  drink  of  water  from  the 
well  of  Bethlehem,  then  garrisoned  by  the  Philistines. 
He  spoke  of  this  yearning,  and,  without  waiting  to  be 
bidden,  three  of  his  bravest  liegemen — possibly  the  sons 
of  Zeruiah — broke  through  the  Philistine  array  and 
fetched  him  the  coveted  draught. 

David,  realizing  that  it  had  been  obtained  at  the 
peril  of  the  lives  of  these  gallant  men,  refused  the 
draught  and  poured  it  out  as  a  kind  of  drink-offering  to 
the  Lord. 

This  was  but  one  of  the  many  striking  displays  of  his 
magnanimity.  But  his  life  was  marred  by  some  grievous 
faults,  which  he  laments  in  the  seven  penitential  psalms. 
For  some  of  these  pronounced  transgressions  he  was 
sorely  punished  by  the  insubordination  of  Joab,  the  bad 
faith  of  his  trusted  counselor,  Ahithophel,  and  the  rebel 
lion  and  death  of  Absalom,  his  favorite  son  and  the 
heir  of  his  throne.  How  true  the  saying  of  William 
Jay,  the  prince  of  preachers,  that  "the  best  of  men  are 
but  men  at  the  best. "  Abraham's  dissimulation,  Noah's 
drunkenness,  Jacob's  sharp  practice,  Solomon's  lechery, 


I/O  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

and  so  on  to  the  end  of  the  chapter.  The  perfect  can 
dor  of  the  writers  of  these  historical  books  of  the  Old 
Testament  utterly  refutes  the  infidel  notion  that  they 
were  in  any  sense  pious  frauds.  And  how  do  these 
sacred  biographies,  and  profane  history  as  well,  teach  us 
that  the  grandest  men  of  universal  history  fall  infinitely 
below  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  who  after  the  flesh  was  both 
the  root  and  the  offspring  of  David,  but  who  likewise 
in  no  dubious  sense  was  the  "only  begotten  of  the 
Father,  full  of  grace  and  truth  !" 


Of  late  years  very  much  stress  has  been  laid  on  the 
law  of  heredity,  but  recently  Professor  Weismann,  of 
Germany,  has  made  a  vigorous  fight  against  the  trans 
mission  of  culture  from  parent  to  offspring.  Some  lead 
ing  scientists,  amongst  them  Alfred  Russell  Wallace, 
have  indorsed  his  views,  and  the  contest  will  be  sharp, 
if  not  decisive.  The  probability  is  that  after  a  period 
of  disputation  a  compromise  will  be  reached.  What  is 
known  as  ativism  is  measurably  true  both  in  anatomy 
and  psychology,  but  the  exceptions  are  so  many  and 
the  intervals  are  so  wide  that  the  law  is  of  little  practi 
cal  benefit.  Some  diseases,  notably  phthisis  and  insan 
ity,  are  now  regarded  as  of  doubtful  transmissibility. 
At  least  it  is  not  so  much  the  disease  itself  that  is  trans 
mitted  as  certain  susceptibilities  to  the  disease.  The 
uniform  tendency  in  nature  is  to  repair  injuries  of  every 
sort  and  thus  to  prevent  their  recurrence  in  offspring. 

It  was  John  Randolph,  I  believe,  who  said  that  moral 
monsters  could  not  propagate.  The  same  conservatism 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  I/ 1 

holds  in  regard  to  physical  degeneracy.  "Margaret, 
the  gutter-snipe,"  was  no  less  exceptional  in  the  mat 
ter  of  motherhood  than  are  the  parents  of  double-headed 
calves  or  three-legged  chickens.  Whether  we  admit  or 
deny  a  Divine  Providence  in  these  and  other  matters, 
there  is  a  uniformity  of  sequence  in  the  processes  of  the 
universe  that  denote  both  a  law  and  a  law-giver. 

These  facts  which  are  being  brought  to  the  front  by 
scientific  research  are  worth  all  the  metaphysics  of  the 
Bridgewater  treatises  and  of  the  Bampton  lectures. 


John  Wesley  is  reported  to  have  said  that  if  he  died 
worth  more  than  enough  to  pay  his  debts  and  funeral 
expenses,  he  wanted  to  be  considered  a  thief  and  a  rob 
ber.  These  may  not  be  his  exact  words,  but  this  is  the 
substance  of  several  of  his  deliverances.  This  great 
man  was  equally  averse  to  the  increase  of  wealth 
amongst  the  Methodist  people.  He  forewarned  them 
that  affluence  would  bring  luxury  and  its  attendant 
irregularities.  In  this  way  the  church  would  lose  its 
spirituality  and  its  hold  on  the  masses.  As  a  pre 
ventive,  he  resolved  for  himself  to  make  all  he  could 
and  give  all  he  could,  and  enjoined  the  same  line  of 
policy  on  his  people.  Mr.  Wesley,  however,  lived  to 
see  a  vast  change  in  the  social  and  financial  condition 
of  his  followers.  The  sixty  dollar  salary  of  Bishop 
Asbury  has  grown  to  some  thousands,  and  there  are 
now  on  the  American  continent  single  Methodist 
churches  that  pay  more  money  than  the  old  Georgia 
Conference  did  in  the  early  days  of  the  Pierces  and 


1/2  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

Arnold  and  Hull  and  others  of  the  fathers.  Has  the 
spiritual  decay  followed  the  fear  of  which  disquieted 
the  mind  of  the  immortal  founder  ?  We  might  answer 
both  yes  and  no.  There  is,  nowadays,  less  of  the  hal 
lelujah  feature — the  amen  corner,  when  not  wholly 
deserted,  responds  feebly  to  the  good  points  of  the 
pulpit.  The  general  rule  touching  gold  and  costly 
apparel  is  in  many  quarters  a  nullity.  There  is  less 
simplicity  in  Methodist  worship — less  closet  devotion  ; 
less  Bible  study  outside  of  the  Sunday-schools.  In 
some  directions,  however,  there  has  been  manifest 
improvement.  The  church  is  expending  large  sums, 
compared  with  other  periods  of  its  history ;  immense 
amounts  indeed  for  church  literature,  home  and  foreign 
missions,  church  building  and  extension  and  current 
church  expenses.  Now,  as  aforetime,  there  are  drones  that 
neither  pay  nor  pray.  There  is  room  for  improvement 
in  both  directions,  especially  in  the  latter.  After  all, 
Methodism  has  been  a  grand  religious  movement. 
Despite  the  shortcomings  of  its  ministry  and  member 
ship,  it  has  not  been  a  whit  behind  its  older  sister 
churches  in  evangelical  piety  and  ecclesiastical  aggres 
siveness.  It  has  compassed  the  earth  by  its  missionary 
enterprises,  and  whereas  in  its  infancy  it  was  a  feeble 
and  despised  sect,  worshipping  in  barns  and  groves,  it 
now  has  its  splendid  churches,  its  well-endowed  col 
leges  and  spacious  hospitals.  Thousands  of  the  most 
cultured  people,  and,  what  is  better,  many  more  of  the 
saintliest  men  and  women  worship  at  its  altars.  With 
its  present  moral  and  financial  resources,  it  only  needs 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  173 

to  "walk  in  the  old  paths,  wherein  is  the  good  way,''  and 
her  growth  before  the  close  of  the  twentieth  century 
will  make  her  the  joy  of  the  angels  and  the  glory  of 
our  common  Christendom. 


Shelley  was  never  at  any  pains  to  conceal  his  atheistic 
sentiments.  When  an  undergraduate  at  Oxford  he 
published  a  pamphlet  denouncing  Christianity  as  a  fraud 
and  a  failure.  In  after  years,  when  he  should  have 
learned  the  folly  of  this  collegiate  blunder,  he  wrote  his 
name  on  the  register  of  the  Hospice  St.  Gothard — Percy 
Bysshe  Shelley,  atheist.  There,  in  the  midst  of  the 
great  mountains,  which  were  striking  emblems  of  God's 
majesty  and  righteousness,  he  exhibited  that  impiety 
that  in  his  case  bordered  on  insanity.  How  else  could 
it  have  been  that  Shelley  would  start  with  seeming  affright 
and  break  out  into  blasphemous  utterances  at  the  men 
tioning  of  the  name  of  Jesus?  I  know  of  nothing  par 
allel  to  it,  except  in  the  case  of  Julian,  the  apostate, 
whose  dying  utterance,  "Oh,  Galilean,  thou  hast  con 
quered!"  was  the  outcry  of  baffled  hate  and  concen 
trated  bitterness. 

Few  persons  of  this  generation  read  much  of  Shelley. 
Indeed,  except  his  lines  "To  a  Skylark,"  and  parts  of 
his  "  Cenci,"  a  tragedy,  there  is  little  of  his  poetry  that 
will  abide. 

Early  in  life  I  was  greatly  enamored  of  Shelley,  and 
it  is  possible  the  reaction  of  later  years  has  swung  the 
pendulum  too  far  in  the  opposite  direction. 


174  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

Few  men  who  meet  Colonel  R.  F.  Maddox,  the 
banker,  and  first-class  Atlantian,  would  ever  infer  that 
he  was  once  the  champion  bugler  of  Western  Georgia. 
When  as  yet  he  had  not  reached  his  legal  majority  he 
was  the  bugler  of  the  Harris  County  Cavalry  company. 
This  company  was  composed  of  the  solid  men  of  those 
parts,  and  it  was  a  treat  to  watch  their  maneuverings 
when  on  parade.  Judge  Crawford,  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  at  one  time  commanded  the  company,  and  by 
his  efforts  brought  them  to  a  good  state  of  drill  and  dis 
cipline.  On  review  days  and  other  special  occasions, 
Bob  Maddox  rode  at  the  head  of  the  cavalry  and  played 
his  bugle  for  all  it  was  worth.  He  was  of  good  stock, 
for  his  ancestry  were  Methodists  of  a  school  nearly 
extinct,  except  in  the  outlying  rural  districts.  They 
belonged  to  that  "bold  peasantry"  whom  Goldsmith 
called  "their  country's  pride,"  from  whom  are  recruited 
our  best  city  population.  Colonel  Maddox  and  myself 
often  meet  and  talk  over  the  old  times,  and  both  of  us 
have  pleasant  memories  of  "old  Harris"  and  its  excel 
lent  people.  Since  these  arcadian  days  we  have  both 
had  our  trials  and  successes,  but  we  often  think,  and 
perchance  dream  by  day  and  night,  of  Pine  mountain 
and  its  picturesque  views,  and  of  the  charming  valleys 
through  which  murmur  the  beautiful  streams  along 
whose  banks  we  fished  and  frolicked  in  boyhood. 


Dr.  Lafferty,  of  the  Richmond  Advocate,  alludes  to 
Rev.  Dr.  R.  L.  Dabney,  the  distinguished  Presbyte 
rian  divine,  as  one  of  the  giants  of  the  century.  He 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  175 

further  commends  him  for  a  vigorous  article  in  a  late 
church  paper  on  the  subject  of  "  Hell  Fire  Preaching." 
This  is  the  sort  of  pulpit  teaching  that  is  greatly  needed 
at  the  present  day.  Too  many  of  our  pulpits  are  con 
verted  into  lecture  platforms,  and  have  consequently  lost 
the  old-time  force  that  "turned  the  world  upside  down." 
Less  German  philosophy,  with  more  evangelical  fervor, 
is  "  mighty  through  God  to  the  pulling  down  of  strong 
holds."  For  a  man  "to  court  a  smile  where  he  should 
win  a  soul"  is  a  species  of  ministerial  trifling  that 
deserves  to  be  scouted  from  the  temple  of  the  Most 
High. 


Not  everybody  will  remember  how,  that  many  years 
ago,  one  Bullock  defaulted  as  cashier  of  the  Central 
Railroad  Bank  at  Savannah.  The  offender  belonged  to 
one  of  the  best  families,  and  his  trial  and  conviction  pro 
duced  quite  an  uproar  in  social,  as  well  as  commercial 
circles.  His  bondsmen  suffered  heavily,  and  the  atmos 
phere  of  the  Forest  City  was  for  quite  awhile  fairly  lurid 
with  curses,  both  loud  and  deep.  Amongst  these 
bondsmen  were  Dr.  Arnold,  and  a  Presbyterian  deacon, 
Albert  Lewis,  whose  behavior  was  sharply  contrasted. 
The  latter,  in  conversation  with  Dr.  Arnold^  said  that 
the  loss  hurt  him  worse  than  anybody.  "Why  so?" 
asked  Dr.  Arnold  ;  "my  money  is  worth  as  much  to  me 
as  yours  is  to  you."  "But,"  replied  the  deacon,  "you 
get  rid  of  your  bad  feelings  by  cursing,  but  I  am  a  mem 
ber  of  the  church  and  am  debarred  from  the  use  of  that 
remedy."  Whereupon  Dr.  Arnold  rejoined  that  he  was 


1/6  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

thankful  that  he  could  exercise  the  rights  of  an  Ameri 
can  democrat,  without  let  or  hindrance.  It  is  well 
known  that  an  explosion  of  expletives,  even  of  a 
wicked  sort,  does  lessen  the  nervous  tension  and  rid  the 
system  of  its  surplus  bile.  Nor  need  we  go  far  to  find 
the  philosophy  of  the  matter.  But  it  is  better  under  all 
provocations  to  obey  the  precept  of  St.  James,  "Swear 
not  at  all." 


"  Before  and  after  taking  "  is  a  favorite  illustration  of 
the  patent  medicine  vendor.  In  these  crude  etchings 
the  difference  between  the  physical  appearance  of  the 
same  man  at  two  periods  of  his  life  are  exaggerated  for 
purposes  of  gain.  "  Before  taking"  he  looks  as  though 
he  had  just  escaped  from  a  cemetery,  minus  the  grave 
clothes.  "  After  taking'1  he  seems  robust  and  ready 
for  the  prize  ring.  This  difference  is  not  more  striking 
than  between  the  popular  estimate  of  some  poets,  living 
and  dead.  Only  the  other  day  an  appreciative  New 
Yorker  endowed  the  cottage  at  Fordham,  which  was 
for  some  years  occupied  by  Edgar  Allan  Poe,  with  the 
handsome  sum  of  $50,000,  the  cottage  to  be  held  and 
perpetuated  as  a  memorial  of  our  greatest  American 
poet.  It  was  there  that  the  girl-wife,  variously  called 
the  "lost  Lenore, "  the  "beautiful  Anabel  Lee,"  so 
beautiful  indeed  that  even  "the  angels  envied  her  fa 
vored  lover,  ''the  saintly  Ulalume,"  was  buried  in 

The  ghoul-haunted  woodland  of  Weir. 
It  was  there,  we  repeat,  she  sickened  and  died  in  the 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  1 77 

arms  of  her  frantic  lover.  It  was  there  also  that  Poe, 
half  crazed  with  grief  in  that  bleak  December  night, 
wrought  out  that  marvelous  poem,  ' '  The  Raven. "  For 
that  work  he  received  from  the  American  (whig)  Review 
the  beggarly  sum  of  $10,  the  weekly  wages  of  a  vulgar 
hireling.  What  recks  the  dead  literary  demigod,  as  he 
lies  now  in  his  neglected  grave  at  Baltimore,  of  these 
post-mortem  honors?  Verily  we  Americans  are  also 
given  to  stoning  the  prophets,  and  as  some  amends  to 
their  outraged  majesty  we  garnish  their  sepulchres. 


Gladstone  seems  to  have  a  standing  quarrel  with  Pro 
fessor  Huxley.  Its  long  continuance  gives  to  this  war 
fare  of  words  the  appearance  of  a  theological  vendetta. 
The  last  phase  of  it  relates  to  the  "swine  miracle"  in 
the  coasts  of  Gadara.  The  great  English  leader  insists 
that  the  scriptural  narrative  of  the  healing  of  the  demo 
niac  who  had  his  dwelling  amongst  the  tombs,  and  of 
the  subsequent  fate  of  the  herd  of  swine,  is  sober  his 
tory.  Professor  Huxley  argues  that  the  whole  transac 
tion  is  mythical,  and  therefore  entitled  to  no  credit. 

It  is  fortunate  for  the  Christian  system  that  its  pillars 
do  not  rest  on  these  surface  facts.  The  whole  of  these 
might  be  swept  into  oblivion,  and  yet  not  one  jot  or 
tittle  of  its  essential  truth  would  be  affected  thereby. 
If,  in  the  intervals  of  official  engagements,  Gladstone 
can  find  time  to  try  conclusions  with  the  scientists  on 
these  side  issues,  it  may  be  well ;  but,  with  due  defer 
ence  to  the  learned  combatants,  we  seriously  question 
"  if  the  game  is  worth  the  candle.'' 


12 


1/8  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

The  thought  of  the  world,  like  its  civilization,  moves 
in  a  circle ;  therefore  it  is  that  history  repeats  itself. 
Even  in  this  age  of  iron  we  are  now  and  then  confronted 
with  curious  speculations  as  to  apparitions,  witchcraft, 
clairvoyance,  and  other  phases  of  what  the  French  call 
"diablerie."  After  all  the  flippant  talk  about  human 
progress,  the  most  advanced  races  have  not  fully  out 
grown  the  love  of  such  studies,  nor  the  belief  in  their 
alleged  facts.  Only  the  other  night,  in  conversation 
with  my  wife,  I  heard  quite  distinctly  the  keys  of  the 
piano  trill  for  a  single  instant  in  the  front  room.  No 
one  else  was  in  the  house,  and  in  reason's  spite  I  was 
conscious  of  a  nervous  twitching.  After  a  moment's 
reflection,  I  mentally  exclaimed,  "  Rats  !"  and  dismissed 
the  subject.  Perhaps  I  had  struck  the  proper  solution  ; 
possibly  was  wide  of  the  mark.  After  all,  it  may  have 
been  a  sensory  illusion.  I  suppose  there  is  hardly  a 
well  regulated  household  that  has  not  its  traditional 
ghost  story.  At  the  risk  of  being  thought  egotistic,  I 
will  tell  one  in  my  father's  family. 

In  1846,  my  brother,  Andrew  D.  Scott,  then  a  resi 
dent  of  Columbus,  enlisted  in  Company  A,  of  the  first 
regiment  of  Georgia  Volunteers  that  went  to  Mexico. 
The  latest  communication  received  from  him  was  writ 
ten  at  Camargo,  on  the  Rio  Grande,  just  as  he  was  leaving 
with  his  regiment  for  Monterey.  Several  weeks  elapsed 
before  we  had  further  tidings  of  him.  During  this  in 
terval,  we  naturally  became  quite  anxious  about  him. 
This  was  especially  true  of  my  father,  whose  health  at 
the  time  was  much  impaired.  On  the  night  of  the  I3th 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  179 

of  December,  1846,  my  father  waked  my  mother  and 
said  to  her :  ' '  Wife,  I  have  had  a  very  unpleasant  dream 
about  Andrew.  It  was  so  vivid  that  I  fear  it  has  some 
significance.  I  dreamed  that  he  came  into  this  room 
and  stood  just  here  by  the  bed.  He  was  looking  like 
himself,  except  that  he  was  pale  and  had  a  sorrowful 
expression  of  countenance.  I  said  to  him  :  '  Son,  how 
is  it  you  are  here?'  He  replied  :  '  Father,  I  am  dead.' ' 
My  mother  rallied  him  gently  on  his  nervousness,  as 
suring  him  that  there  was  nothing  in  a  dream.  About 
ten  days  thereafter  my  father  received  a  letter  from  Cap 
tain  Calhoun,  of  Company  A,  stating  that  the  regiment 
had  been  ordered  from  Monterey  to  Tampico,  and  that 
my  brother  and  his  old  schoolmate,  Fleming  G.  Davies, 
of  Milledgeville,  had  been  left  seriously  ill  in  a  hospital 
at  Monterey.  Some  weeks  thereafter,  we  had  a  letter 
from  Mark  H.  Blandford,  of  the  same  regiment,  lately  a 
judge  of  the  Supreme  Court,  informing  us  that  he  had 
understood  that  this  brother  died  on  the  night  of  the 
1 3th  of  December,  at  Monterey,  and  was  buried,  his 
grave  being  marked  for  future  identification.  The 
dream  and  the  death  we  were  then,  and  now  are,  satis 
fied  occurred  on  the  same  night.  Of  course  we  believed 
there  was  no  ghostly  visitation,  that  the  whole  affair 
was  subjective,  and  the  coincidence  purely  fortuitous. 
A  large  number  of  very  similar  instances  are  recorded 
in  books  of  science,  notably  by  Abercrombie  and  Up- 
ham.  Quite  recently  we  have  seen  the  statement  from 
an  able  writer  that  ghosts  ' '  are  neither  flesh  and  blood 


l8o  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

entities,  nor  extremely  tenuous  bodies,  but  the  result  of 
the  telepathic  action  of  one  mind  on  another." 

This  definition  reminds  us  of  Huxley's  definition  of 
evolution.  Both  need  some  one  to  interpret  them  to 
the  laity. 


Sir  Walter  Scott  was  wont  to  liken  James  I.  of  Eng 
land  to  an  old  gander  running  about  and  cackling  all 
manner  of  nonsense.  The  provocation  must  have  been 
very  great  that  would  have  induced  the  author  of 
"  Waverly "  to  speak  thus  irreverently  of  a  crowned 
head,  especially  of  a  Stuart.  -  But  James  deserved  this 
and  more,  tor  he  was  a  first-class  nuisance  in  court  and 
country.  This  royal  pupil  of  George  Buchanan  had  a 
profound  conviction  that  he  had  mastered  the  science  of 
kingcraft,  and  therefore  he  was  continually  seeking  to 
thrust  his  views  about  all  sorts  of  things,  great  or  small, 
upon  his  subjects. 

He  had  a  childish  dread  of  witches  and  an  invincible 
dislike  to  heretics,  two  of  whom  he  caused  to  be  burned 
at  Smithfield.  When  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  introduced 
tobacco  into  the  realm  he  turned  author  and  wrote  a 
most  furious  and  pedantic  "Counterblast"  against  its 
use.  When  his  Queen  Anne  of  Denmark  imported  the 
farthingale  from  France  he  issued  a  royal  proclamation 
against  this  style  of  female  underwear.  He  was  not 
without  learning  of  a  sort,  but  his  lack  of  practical  sense 
made  him  a  perpetual  bore  when  he  was  not  a  laughing 
stock  in  his  own  palace.  Possibly,  if  he  had  been  a 
wiser  sovereign,  Raleigh  would  not  have  been  beheaded 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  l8l 

nor  Bacon  disgraced.  He  transmitted  to  his  son  and 
successor  a  zeal  for  Episcopacy  and  prerogative  that 
cost  him  his  throne  and  cost  England  twenty-five  years 
of  civil  war. 


There  is  no  solitude  like  that  which  may  be  found  in 
a  great  city.  When  Cowper  was  heartsick  and  weary 
of  the  garrulity  of  Mrs.  Unwin  and  her  tea  drinking 
neighbors,  he  wished  for  "a  lodge  in  some  vast  wilder 
ness."  The  poet  of  "The  Task"  would  have  found 
quicker  relief  if  he  had  plunged  into  the  heart  ot  Lon 
don.  What  a  man,  in  h.is  nervous  condition,  needs  is 
diversion  quite  as  much  as  seclusion.  But  if  the  latter 
is  desired  it  can  be  better  secured  in  a  great  metropolis 
than  in  "some  boundless  contiguity  of  shade."  It  is 
related  of  Dr.  Johnson  that  for  forty  years  he  walked 
through  the  streets  of  London,  when,  by  the  merest 
chance,  he  met  the  first  time  a  schoolboy  friend  who  had 
come  to  that  vast  city  the  same  year  and  month  with 
himself.  Although  their  residences  were  only  a  few 
squares  apart,  yet  during  that  long  period,  their  paths 
never  crossed 


Who  was  the  "War  Horse  of  Troup?"  We  put  this 
question  a  few  days  ago  to  a  lady  who  was  reared  in 
LaGrange.  She  promptly  and  rather  naively  answered : 
"I  suppose  Governor  Gordon  or  Burrus  Jones."  Both 
these  gentlemen  were  rather  conspicuous  for  their  fight 
ing  qualities  during  the  late  war.  Some  queer  things 
are  told  of  Colonel  Jones,  especially  his  coolness  under 


1 82  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

fire.  It  is  said  that  when  on  picket  duty  with  his  regi 
ment,  his  habit  (whenever  the  enemy's  fire  slackened) 
was  to  light  his  pipe  and  sit  down  to  his  favorite  game 
of  "  Old  Sledge."  But  the  real  war  horse  of  Troup  was 
Colonel  Julius  C.  Alford,  of  whom  current  literature 
makes  but  little  mention.  During  the  Creek  and  Semi- 
nole  troubles  he  made  an  enviable  reputation  as  a 
soldier,  but  with  the  details  of  his  military  career  we 
are  in  no  wise  familiar.  In  the  presidential  campaign 
of  1840  he  was  known  far  and  wide  as  the  "  War  Horse 
of  Troup."  Indeed,  he  was  a  man  of  stalwart  build,  a 
ready  debater,  and  of  a  personal  courage  that  never 
flickered  in  any  presence.  He  was  one  of  the  few  Whig 
campaigners  that  could  measure  swords  with  Walter  T. 
Colquitt.  They  were  well  matched  on  the  hustings,  for 
Colquitt,  although  of  less  physical  power,  had  equal  or 
superior  gifts  as  an  orator,  and  a  like  faculty  for  enthus 
ing  his  audience.  To  compare  things  strikingly  unlike, 
we  might  say  they  were  as  well  matched  as  Bill  Stal- 
lings  and  Bob  Durham,  the  respective  bullies  of  the 
upper  and  lower  battalions,  whom  Longstreet  has  so 
vividly  portrayed  in  "Georgia  Scenes.''  The  issue  of 
the  fight  which  Longstreet  describes,  settled  the  cham 
pionship  of  the  country  as  between  Stallings  and  Durham, 
the  latter  wearing  the  belt.  The  Whigs  and  Democrats, 
however,  could  never  agree  as  to  whether  Alford  or  Col 
quitt  was  the  champion  debater.  The  only  time  I  ever 
heard  Alford  was  at  an  immense  barbecue  held  in  the 
High  School  grove  at  LaGrange.  Dr.  R.  A.  T.  Ridley 
presided  and  introduced  the  speakers.  Besides  Colonel 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  183 

Alford,  I  remember  Colonel  Hutchinson,  of  Montgom 
ery,  Ala.,  who  was  quaintly  surnamed  the  "Prairie 
Bull. "  His  boisterous  delivery  may  have  suggested  this 
ungainly  sobriquet.  He  afterwards  entered  the  Metho 
dist  ministry,  and  died,  I  believe,  a  distinguished  mem 
ber  of  the  Alabama  conference.  Colonel  Alford,  who 
was  on  his  native  heath,  came  last,  and,  by  his  severe 
castigation  of  the  Van  Buren  administration,  and  his 
decidedly  emphatic  way  of  stating  his  facts  and  figures 
about  extravagance  in  the  White  House,  he  fully  en 
titled  himself  to  be  called  the  "  War  Horse  of  Troup." 
To  speak  more  soberly,  Colonel  Alford  was  a  man  of 
marked  ability,  who  attained  to  legislative  and  con 
gressional  honors.  But  for  a  comparatively  early  death, 
he  would  have  reached  yet  higher  distinction  in  the 
councils  of  the  nation.  Some  of  his  descendants  and 
other  relatives  are  amongst  the  best  people  of  Troup 
and  adjoining  counties. 


Peter  the  Great  well  deserves  to  be  styled  what  a  late 
writer  has  called  "a  beacon  light  of  history."  Nor  is 
another  historian  wide  of  the  mark  when  he  describes 
him  as  an  "inspired  barbarian."  Be  that  as  it  may,  he 
was  in  a  better  sense  the  founder  of  that  immense  mili 
tary  power,  which  now  overshadows  both  northern 
Europe  and  Asia,  than  was  the  Great  Frederick,  the 
founder  of  the  vast  German  Empire.  When  Peter  came 
to  the  throne  his  people  were,  indeed,  in  a  semi-barbar 
ous  condition.  The  story  of  his  travels  in  disguise 
through  Europe,  observing  the  civilizations  that  he  was 


184  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

anxious  to  introduce  into  his  own  Muscovite  realm, 
reads  like  a  romance — especially  the  statement  that  for 
months  he  worked  in  the  dock-yards  of  Holland  that  he 
might  master  the  craft  of  shipbuilding.  But  as  yet  Rus 
sia  had  no  outlet  to  the  great  oceans  of  the  world,  and 
it  was  to  accomplish  that  purpose  that  Peter  built  a  new 
capital,  St.  Petersburg,  in  the  marshes  of  the  Neva, 
hoping  to  effect  his  object  through  the  gulf  of  Finland 
and  the  Baltic  sea.  Later  sovereigns  of  the  house  of 
Romanoff  have  steadfastly  pursued  the  same  policy. 
But  for  the  last  half  century  and  more  they  have  aimed 
at  the  seizure  of  Constantinople  and  egress  by  the  Bos- 
phorus  into  the  Mediterranean,  on  whose  shores  have 
flourished  and  fallen  some  of  the  greatest  civilizations  of 
the  world's  history. 

Since  the  days  of  Catherine  II.,  the  legend,  "This  is 
the  way  to  Constantinople,"  has  been  the  keynote  to 
Russian  progress  and  the  inspiration  of  military 
aggressiveness.  Indeed  this  is  the  gist  of  the  eastern 
question  that  has  so  often  disturbed  the  midnight  slum 
bers  of  Downing  street  and  sorely  perplexed  the  diplo 
macy  of  Paris  and  Berlin. 

.  Nor  was  this  question  definitely  settled  by  the  charge 
at  Balaklava  or  the  storming  of  the  Redan.  England 
has  not  relaxed  her  grip  on  the  Sultan,  nor  has  the 
Czar  ceased  to  covet  the  Danubian  principalities,  and 
along  with  these  Constantinople,  the  last  foothold  of 
Islamism  on  the  European  continent.  This  is  to-day 
the  greatest  living  issue  of  European  politics.  It  is 
greater  by  far  than  the  Alsace  and  Lorraine  issue ; 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  185 

greater  than  the  Egyptian  embroglio  and  a  more  urgent 
issue  than  whether  Germany  or  England  shall  control 
on  the  banks  of  the  Congo.  There  is  a  strange  vitality 
in  this  eastern  question,  as  we  have  defined  it.  It 
recalls  the  emphatic  utterances  of  the  elder  Cato, 
" Delerda  est  Carthago,"  with  which  he  closed  every 
address  to  the  Roman  Senate.  The  utterance  was  pro 
phetic  and  Carthage  received  her  death-blow  at  the 
hands  of  Scipio  Africanus  on  the  plains  of  Zama. 
Sooner  or  later  likewise  the  Czar  of  all  the  Russias 
will  ride  in  triumph  through  the  streets  of  Con- 
stantine's  favorite  capitol.  Less  than  six  months  before 
the  untimely  and  lamented  death  of  Henry  Grady,  he 
asked  me  when  and  where  would  be  fought  the  battle  of 
Gog  and  Magog.  I  answered  that  the  usual  opinion 
was  that  this  last  conflict  would  be  waged  on  the  plains 
of  Esdraelon  the  Flanders  of  Hebrew  history.  But 
that  another  opinion  was  that  this  decisive  struggle 
would  take  place  under  the  walls  of  Constantinople, 
where  Christian  and  Saracen  had  so  often  and  so  stoutly 
contended  for  the  mastery.  In  his  speech  at  the  Uni 
versity  of  Virginia  a  few  days  thereafter,  (which  was  his 
best  literary  work),  he  made  some  brilliant  points  on 
this  Armageddon  affair. 


I  once  heard  a  minister  of  high  rank  preach  on  the 
hackneyed  pulpit  theme  of  "Family  Government." 
There  was  in  the  discourse  a  goodly  measure  of  com 
monplace  moralizing,  but  there  was  one  remark  that 
was  solid  and  suggestive,  and  that  deserves  to  be  writ- 


1 86  PARAGRAPHIC    PENC1LINGS. 

ten  on  the  lintels  of  every  Christian  home.  It  was  in 
these  words  :  "  If  you  would  have  your  child  love  you, 
you  must  exact  of  him  thorough  obedience."  This 
precept  is  as  weighty  as  the  best  saying  of  the  seven 
wise  men  of  Greece.  Where  one  child  is  won  by 
parental  indulgence  a  hundred  are  alienated  and  spoiled 
for  life  by  this  sort  of  leniency.  Ancestral  worship  is 
the  basis  of  all  true  religion.  Fatherhood  is  a  sacred 
trust,  and  whatever  lowers  its  dignity  or  weakens  its 
authority  is  a  curse  to  the  household  and  a  damage  to 
society.  We  offer  no  apology  for  the  domestic  tyrant 
who  rules  his  family  with  a  mailed  hand  or  by  any  other 
law  than  that  of  kindness.  Children  and  servants  have 
rights  which  even  pater  familias  is  bound  to  respect. 
But  to  suffer  them,  from  mistaken  fondness,  to  grow  up 
like  the  "wild  ass'  colt,"  is  to  do  them  a  grievous 
wrong.  Whether  the  rod  is  to  be  employed  in  the  rear 
ing  of  the  child  depends  very  much  on  the  temperament 
of  the  child  and  but  little  less  on  the  temper  of  the 
parent.  An  angry  father  who,  in  such  a  mood,  bela 
bors  a  rude  boy  with  a  hickory  or  a  cowhide,  is  very 
sure  to  "  provoke  him  to  wrath,"  contrary  to  the  apos 
tolic  injunction.  In  such  cases  the  infliction  is  worse 
than  the  evil  sought  to  be  remedied.  With  these  nec 
essary  qualifications,  the  maxim,  "spare  the  rod  and 
spoil  the  child,"  while  not.  as  is  sometimes  claimed, 
scriptural  in  its  literal  acceptation,  is,  notwithstanding, 
in  human  experience  not  without  "  confirmation  strong 
as  proofs  of  Holy  Writ." 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  1 87 

East  Tennessee  loyalty  reached  its  high  water  mark 
after  the  surrender  of  Appomatox.  Of  course  there 
were  honorable  exceptions,  but  in  the  main  the  political 
following  of  Brownlow,  Etheridge  and  Andy  Johnson 
consisted  of  the  riff-raff  of  the  mountaineers,  who  were 
as  thoroughly  wedded  to  the  stars  and  stripes  as  were 
the  provincialists  of  La  Vendee  to  the  Bourbon  dynasty 
in  the  early  days  of  the  French  revolution.  During 
the  contest  they  were  intensely  bitter  and  prescriptive 
and  but  little  esteemed  even  by  their  associates  for 
their  soldierly  qualities.  But  when  the  cruel  war  was 
over  they  vented  their  spleen  on  the  "secesh,"  driving 
out  many  of  the  best  citizens  and  grossly  abusing 
others,  especially  the  preachers  of  the  Southern 
Methodist  church.  Some  of  this  latter  class  were 
beaten  unmercifully  by  the  loyal  kuklux  for  no  crime 
except  the  preaching  of  a  non-political  gospel.  East 
Tennessee,  as  well  as  Missouri,  had  its  Methodist 
martyrs,  such  as  the  venerable  Brillhart  and  the  saintly 
Neal.  In  1866,  I  made  a  business  tour  through  this 
section,  occasionally  preaching  at  some  personal  peril, 
as  at  Athens,  where  the  Southern  Methodists  were 
excluded  from  their  own  church  and  compelled  to  wor 
ship  in  the  court  house.  On  Monday  thereafter  the 
town  was  thronged  with  blue  coats,  who  were  some 
what  given  to  rowdyism  Two  or  three  times  during 
the  day  I  was  pointed  out  and  opprobriously  designated 
by  the  coarse  military  rabble  as  the  "rebel  preacher." 

Some  of  my  friends  were  apprehensive  that  I   might 


1 88  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

meet  with  harsher  treatment,  but  I  escaped  any  per 
sonal  violence.  At  Cleveland  and  Knoxville  matters 
had  righted  up  to  a  great  extent,  but  even  at  these 
points  the  fires  of  hate  were  smouldering  rather  than 
extinguished.  Rev.  Dr.  Park,  the  Presbyterian  pastor 
at  Knoxville,  weathered  out  the  storm  of  war  and  was 
unflinchingly  faithful  to  the  Confederate  cause.  He  gave 
me  much  sympathy  during  my  stay  in  Knoxville  and 
much  information  which  I  cannot  now  recall.  He  still 
survives  and  enjoys  the  love  and  reverence  of  all  good 
people.  Here  I  renewed  ray  acquaintance  with  that 
grand  Methodist  layman,  J.  W.  Gaut,  whom  I  had  fre 
quently  met  in  Georgia  during  the  war  period.  At 
lanta  was  greatly  benefited  by  the  exodus  of  Southern 
men  from  East  Tennessee.  Moore  and  Marsh  and 
Lowry  and  Hopkins  and  the  Inmans,  and  others  of  At 
lanta's  foremost  citizens  were  drifted  Southward  by  the 
cumpulsive  current  of  sectional  animosity. 


A  Presbyterian  friend  asks  me  to  take  a  hand  in  the 
pending  controversy — "Shall  Women  be  Allowed  to 
Preach?"  With  the  thermometer  up  in  the  nineties 
and  still  suffering  with  a  remnant  of  LaGrippe,  I  am  not 
in  the  mood  for  such  heavy  work.  If  the  eager  public 
will  be  patient  the  question  will  settle  itself.  Isolated 
texts,  whether  from  Peter  or  Paul,  cannot  arrest  the 
movement,  especially  when  the  texts  themselves  are  of 
doubtful  interpretation.  Let  us  quietly  and  prayerfully 
await  the  developments  of  Providence.  Of  one  thing  I 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  189 

am  quite  sure,  that  several  of  the  devout  women  that  I 
have  heard  preach  are  quite  equal  in  gifts  and  graces  to 
the  average  pulpiteer  of  the  male  persuasion.  All  this 
is  aside  from  the  widely  different  question  of  licensure 
or  ordination. 


We  frequently  stumble  on  journalistic  discussions  of 
the  comparative  value  of  genius  and  talent.  Like 
Macaulay,  we  have  a  hearty  abhorrence  of  the  latter 
term,  especially  the  adjective,  "talented."  It  is  in 
sooth  the  characteristic  of  the  coarser  mental  and  moral 
fibre,  and  belongs  as  little  to  the  higher  realm  of  intel 
lect  as  a  sewing  machine  to  the  department  of  fine  arts. 
As  respects  genius,  it  is  everywhere  a  divine  gift,  and 
is  not  less  inspirational  than  prophecy.  Whether  we 
trace  its  footprints  in  the  Inferno  of  Dante  or  the 
transfiguration  of  Raphael,  we  stand  reverent,  with 
uncovered  head  and  unsandalled  feet,  as  did  Moses  at 
the  burning  bush,  or  with  mouth  in  the  dust,  as  when 
Jehovah  spoke  to  his  servant  Job  out  of  the  whirlwind. 
We  don't  undervalue  industry  as  a  means  of  achieving 
greatness,  but  it  is  an  indifferent  substitute  for  the 
highest  order  of  genius.  These  two,  talent  and  genius, 
are,  as  a  mathematician  would  say,  incommensurable 
quantities.  The  loftiest  flights  of  oratory,  as  in  the  case 
of  Mirabeau  and  Burke  the  sublimest  reaches  of  the 
imagination,  as  in  Faust  and  the  Iliad,  can  never  be 
rivaled  by  mere  talent,  however  deep  and  broad. 
The  history  of  literature  is  replete  with  these  ambi- 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

tious  efforts.  It  is,  after  all,  soaring  on  Dedalian 
wings  that  melt  in  the  sunlight  of  the  Empyrean.  To 
illustrate,  Everett  was  a  man  of  talent.  His  fellow- 
countryman,  Webster,  was  a  genius.  And  so  on 
through  the  list  of  great  names. 


Two  highly  esteemed  personal  friends,  Dr.  R.  B. 
Ridley  and  Judge  George  Hillyer,  have  mentioned  to 
me  an  English  review  of  a  recent  date,  which  is  highly 
laudatory  of  our  Georgia  poet,  Sidney  Lanier.  The 
English  critic  places  Lanier  in  the  front  rank  of 
American  bards.  Several  years  ago  we  had  occasion  to 
write  and  print  an  elaborate  article  on  Lanier,  in  which 
we  assigned  him  a  like  position.  We  even  ventured  to 
say  that  neither  Alexander  Pope  nor  John  Dryden,  in 
their  tribute  to  music,  had  equaled  his  masterpiece, 
"The  Symphony."  The  English  reviewer  further  says 
that  Lanier  surpasses  both  Tennyson  and  Browning. 
This  estimate  needs  little  modification.  The  time  is 
nigh  at  hand  when  this  illustrious  Georgian  will  be 
hailed  as  the  greatest  poet  of  the  present  generation. 

How  much  is  it  to  be  deplored  that  contemporary 
criticism  in  his  case  was  so  greatly  mistaken  in  its  ap 
preciation  of  him  !  Strange  to  say,  there  were  profes 
sional  reviewers  that  went  wild  over  the  oftentimes 
vapid  versification  oi  Longfellow  that  sought  to  damn 
Lanier  with  faint  praise.  What  think  some  of  these  of 
the  following  which  one  of  the  most  cultured  literateurs 
in  America  pronounces  a  diamond  of  the  first  water? 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  19! 

A   BALLAD   OF   TREES  AND  THE   MASTER. 

Into  the  woods  my  Master  went 

Clean  forspent,  forspent. 

Into  the  woods  my  Master  came 

Forspent  with  love  and  shame. 

But  the  olives  they  were  not  blind  to  Him  ; 

The  little  gray  leaves  were  kind  to  Him  ; 

The  thorn  tree  had  a  mind  to  Him, 

When  into  the  woods  He  came. 

Out  of  the  woods  my  Master  camt- 
And  He  was  well  content. 
Out  of  the  woods  my  Master  came 
Content  with  death  and  shame. 
When  death  and  shame  would  woo  Him  last; 
From  under  the  trees  they  drew  Him  last ; 
'Twas  on  a  tree  they  slew  Him  last, 
When  out  of  the  woods  He  came. 

What  Raphael's  "  Madonna"    is  in  sacred  art,   this 
ballad  is  in  Christian  song. 


The  remains  of  the  first  man  that  I  ever  saw  who  had 
been  slain  in  battle,  were  those  of  Major  Ringgold,  the 
gallant  artillerist  of  Taylor's  army.  They  were  carried 
through,  overland,  by  the  old  Piedmont  line  of  stages  to 
Baltimore.  They  were  placed  on  top  of  the  coach,  while 
a  small  escort  occupied  the  body  of  the  coach.  It  will  be 
remembered  that  Ringgold  fell  in  the  first  regular  battle 
of  the  Mexican  war,  May  8th,  1846,  at  Palo  Alto,  a  few 
miles  from  Point  Isabel.  Taylor,  at  the  head  of  2,000 
men,  was  marching  to  the  relief  of  Major  Brown  at  Mat- 
amoras.  General  Arista,  of  the  Mexican  army,  who  a 
few  days  before  had  surprised  and  captured  Captain 


192  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

Thornton  and  his  dragoons,  placed  his  army  of  6,000 
athwart  Taylor's  line  of  march.  At  Palo  Alto  they 
met,  when  the  Mexicans  were  driven  back  to  Resaca  de 
la  Palma,  where  a  heavier  engagement  occurred  on  the 
9th,  which  resulted  in  a  thorough  defeat  of  the  enemy. 
It  was  in  this  last  battle  that  Captain  May  and  his  dra 
goons  charged  a  Mexican  battery  and  captured  General 
La  Vega,  who  was  in  command  of  the  battery.  Ring- 
gold  and  May,  who  were  the  heroes  of  the  hour,  were 
Southern  men.  The  first  departure  of  troops  for  the 
seat  of  war  that  I  ever  witnessed  was  at  Milledgeville  in 
1835.  It  was  a  small  body  who  went  to  join  others  at 
Macon  and  go  forward  to  reinforce  the  Texans  under 
Sam  Houston.  My  recollection  is  that  they  narrowly 
missed  the  massacre  of  the  Alamo  and  shared  in  the 
crowning  victory  of  San  Jacinto  in  the  following  April. 


Charles  Phillips,  the  eloquent  Irish  barrister,  in  em 
phasizing  the  inconsistencies  of  the  First  Napoleon,  says 
of  him,  amongst  other  things — ' '  a  professed  Catholic, 
he  imprisoned  the  Pope."  To  understand  the  true  im 
port  of  this  statement  we  must  needs  refer  to  the  matri 
monial  vagaries  of  "  the  man  of  destiny."  Most  people 
know  something  of  his  abandonment  of  the  beautiful 
and  devoted  Creole  widow  of  Beauharnais,  who  gave 
him  her  heart  and  hand  when  as  yet  he  was  "  unknown 
to  fortune  and  to  fame."  Very  few,  however,  are  aware 
of  the  fact  that  this  marriage  was  solemnized  in  1796 
according  to  revolutionary  forms  and  not  by  a  Catholic 
priest.  For  this  reason  it  was  regarded  by  Pius  VII., 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  IQ3 

the  reigning  pontiff,  as  uncanonical.  Pius,  however, 
recognized  it  as  a  civil  contract  and  theretore  binding  in 
the  Court  of  Conscience.  When  Napoleon  afterwards, 
desiring  for  purely  political  reasons  to  put  aside  the 
wife  of  his  youth,  asked  the  Pope  to  sanction  his  adul 
terous  marriage  with  Maria  Louisa,  the  Hapsburg  prin 
cess,  the  request  was  declined.  This  refusal  was  made 
at  great  personal  risk,  and  really  subjected  him  to  more 
than  a  constructive  imprisonment,  first  in  Rome  itself, 
and  again  at  Fontainebleau.  It  may  have  been  to  co 
erce  the  Pope  that  Napoleon  seized  St.  Peter's  patri 
mony  and  annexed  it  to  the  Empire  long  before  the 
time  of  Victor  Emanuel. 

Napoleon  I.,  like  Henry  VIII.,  when  he  set  his  heart 
on  Anne  Boleyn,  would  listen  to  no  ghostly  counsel, 
but  proceeded,  in  spite  of  the  tears  and  entreaties  and 
swoonings  of  Josephine,  to  the  consummation  of  a  mar 
riage  which  allied  him  to  one  of  the  oldest  dynasties  of 
Europe.  We  need  not  say  that  the  results  were  disap 
pointing  in  more  respects  than  one.  It  was  a  just  retri 
bution  which  befell  him,  in  that,  although  his  Austrian 
wife  gave  birth  to  a  male  heir  in  less  than  a  year  after 
her  espousal,  yet  it  was  not  the  king  of  Rome,  as  he 
was  boastfully  called,  but  a  grandson  of  Josephine,  his 
repudiated  wife,  that  came  to  the  throne  of  the  French 
Empire.  It  may  seem  superstitious,  and  yet  we  will 
venture  the  remark  that  it  was  this  Austrian  alliance 
that  paved  the  way  to  the  decline  and  ultimate  downfall 
of  Bonapartism.  He  was  prompted  to  it  by  "a  vault 
ing  ambition  that  overleaped  itself."  It  not  only  failed 


194  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

to  conciliate  the  crowned  heads,  but  it  compromised  his 
honor  with  the  masses  who  had  hitherto  rejoiced  in  his 
good  fortune.  This  it  was  that  gave  double  fury  to  the 
winds  of  adversity  that  followed  the  inglorious  Russian 
campaign.  This  it  was  that  sent  him  an  exile  to  Elba, 
and  after  the  hundred  days  ending  at  Waterloo,  shut 
him  up  a  State  prisoner  at  St.  Helena. 

When  on  that  "lone,  barren  rock"  he  passed  away, 
not  with  New  Jerusalem  visions,  but  with  terrific  battle 
scenes  searing  his  glazing  eyeballs — nor  yet  with  the 
quiring  of  cherubim  falling  on  his  ears — but  rather  the 
tumultuous  rush  and  deafening  roar  of  a  Liepsic  or  an 
Austerlitz.  If  there  was  in  this  horrid  delirium  of  death 
a  single  momentary  interval  of  consciousness,  there 
must  have  been  bitter  memories  of  the  injured  Jose 
phine  who  generously  offered  to  attend  him  in  his  exile 
at  Elba,  and  if  she  had  survived  would  no  doubt  have 
piteously  begged  the  privilege  of  nursing  him  in  the 
later  weary  years  of  his  imprisonment  under  Sir  Hudson 
Lowe.  How  sharply  contrasted  the  true  wifely  devo 
tion  of  Josephine  and  the  conduct  of  his  Austrian  bride, 
who  before  his  death  contracted  a  morganatic  marriage 
below  her  rank  as  a  Hapsburg  princess,  and  yet  moved 
as  an  Empress  of  France.  In  the  light  of  Josephine's 
subsequent  history,  how  strange  and  still  how  accurate 
the  forecast  of  the  old  sybil  of  Martinico,  who  said  to 
the  jaunty  Creole  maiden  :  "You  will  be  married  soon  ; 
that  union  will  not  be  happy  ;  you  will  become  a  widow 
and  then  you  will  be  queen  of  France !  Some  happy 
years  will  be  yours,  but  you  will  die  in  a  hospital  amid 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  195 

civil  commotion."  If  this  statement  be  true,  and  Jose 
phine  vouched  for  its  correctness,  the  aged  sybil's 
phrophecy  was  almost  literally  fulfilled. 

Before  dismissing  the  matter  of  marriage  and  divorce 
in  connection  with  the  First  Napoleon,  it  may  be  well 
to  refer  to  his  strenuous  effort  to  induce  his  brothers, 
Lucien  and  Jerome,  to  put  away  their  wives  for  selfish 
ends.  Jerome  was  pliable,  and  for  his  obedience  to  his 
imperious,  as  well  as  imperial,  brother,  was  rewarded 
with  a  petty  kingdom — perhaps  Westphalia.  Lucien, 
however,  was  less  tractable.  In  response  to  his 
brother's  invitation,  he  went  to  the  place  of  St.  Cloud, 
where  Napoleon  was  closeted  with  him  for  one  or  two 
hours,  urging  Lucien  to  give  his  wife  and  the  mother  of 
his  children  a  bill  of  divorcement.  Lucien  was  obsti 
nate  and  even  resentful.  When  his  brother  offered  him 
a  crown  on  condition  that  he  would  repudiate  his  wife, 
"a  woman  of  gallantry,"  as  he  stigmatized  her,  Lucien 
was  greatly  enraged,  and  replied  that  if  his  wife  was  "a 
woman  of  gallantry,"  she  was  at  least  "pretty  and 
young."  This  innuendo,  at  the  expense  of  Josephine, 
fired  the  indignation  of  the  Emperor,  and,  holding  his 
watch  in  his  hand,  he  dashed  it  to  the  floor,  saying, 
"With  like  ease  I  could  crush  you  as  I  have  crushed 
that  bauble,  but  you  are  my  brother — go."  Thereupon 
Lucien  withdrew,  doing  honor  to  himself  by  the  refusal 
of  a  crown  rather  than  do  such  injustice  to  his  wife. 
This  whole  affair  shows  how  reckless  Napoleon  was  of 
marriage  obligations  when  they  stood  in  the  way  of  his 
ambition.  It  illustrates  likewise  another  saying  of  the 


196  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

Irish  barrister,  to  whom  we  referred  in  the  outset,  that 
so  thoroughly  had  Napoleon  shattered  the  govern 
mental  institutions  of  Europe,  "that  he  disposed  of 
crowns  and  thrones  with  as  little  ceremomy  as  if  they 
had  been  the  titular  dignitaries  of  a  chess  board. 


Three  Confederate  officers,  amongst  the  most  con 
spicuous  for  personal  gallantry  in  the  battle  of  the  Wil 
derness,  were  Gordon,  Evans  and  Phil  Cook,  all  Geor 
gians,  and  all  of  them  at  this  time  residents  of  Atlanta. 
Speaking  of  General  Evans,  it  may  not  be  generally 
known  that  he  commanded  the  rear  guard  of  Lee's  army 
during  the  retreat  from  Petersburg.  In  the  melee  his 
wife  was  captured,  but  luckily  fell  into  the  hands  of 
General  Custer,  who  treated  her  with  great  kindness 
and  consideration,  informing  Evans  at  the  first  oppor 
tunity  of  her  safety. 

Custer,  who  was  a  knightly  soldier,  was,  with  his  com 
mand,  afterwards  massacred  by  the  Modoc  Indians. 


We  have  through  the  press  nowadays  a  great  deal 
of  discussion  of  dietetics  and  pedagogics — the  stom 
ach  and  the  school.  One  writer  on  the  "curiosities  of 
eating  and  drinking,"  justly  remarks,  "that  every  kind 
of  food  and  drink  is  proved  by  some  scientific  discov 
erer  or  another  to  be  rank  poison. "  He  quotes  amongst 
others  a  German  physiologist  who  claims  that  Buffon 
and  Voltaire  drank  enormous  quantities  of  coffee  to  their 
deadly  hurt,  and  that  "the  descriptions  that  the  former 
penned  of  the  dog,  the  tiger  and  other  carnivorous  ani- 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  197 

mals  were  written  under  strong  cerebral  excitement." 
With  like  confidence  others  aver  that  tea,  which  even 
Cowper  drank  with  such  gusto  from  the  silver  urn  of 
Mr.  Unwin,  is  a  dangerous  beverage  to  tamper  with. 

A  dozen  or  more  years  ago,  when  I  was  oscillating 
between  life  and  death,  I  chanced  to  meet  an  unknown 
gentleman  who  was  evidently  struck  with  my  semi- 
cadaverous  aspect.  He  was,  I  am  quite  sure,  a  learned 
physician  from  the  far  West.  He  asked  me  in  regard 
to  my  dieting,  and  I  informed  him  that  I  was  advised 
to  restrict  myself  to  milk,  and  a  small  quantity  of  tea  and 
vegetables.  This  remark  seemed  to  startle  him.  "Why, 
my  friend,"  he  rejoined,  "your  medical  adviser  must  be 
a  very  incapable  personage.  I  insist  that  you  should 
eat  as  much  as  your  stomach  craves  of  good  roast  beef 
and  pork  steak,  washed  down  with  liberal  potations  of 
the  best  whisky  or  brandy."  "Why,"  said  I,  half  smil 
ingly,  "have  you  forgotten  that  Moses  prohibited 
swine's  flesh  as  a  sanitary  measure?''  "That  was  well 
enough,"  he  answered,  "when  applied  to  the  razor- 
back  hogs  around  Jerusalem,  but  it  will  not  hold  with 
the  Berkshires  and  Graziers  of  Kentucky  and  Missouri. 
No  better  diet  than  that  for  an  invalid  if  it  is  properly 
prepared."  I  left  the  train  at  the  next  station,  and 
taking  my  hand  he  walked  to  the  platform  of  the  car, 
and  giving  me  a  hearty  hand-shaking,  he  said:  "Don't 
forget  the  roast  beef  and  whisky  and  it  will  make  you  a 
new  man." 

Only  a  few  days  ago  I  made  an  early  morning  call  on 
a  lady  friend,  and  found  her  drinking  a  cup  of  hot  water 


ig8  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

preparatory  to  a  late  breakfast.  I  asked  if  she  found 
any  virtue  in  it.  She  replied  that  it  was  the  best  medi 
cine  she  had  ever  tried  for  indigestion.  She  drank  it  so 
hot  that  it  almost  blistered  her  tongue.  And  yet  chem 
ists  inform  us  that  pepsin,  the  most  important  ingredi 
ent  of  the  gastric  juice,  is  rendered  inert  and  valueless 
for  digestive  purposes  when  fluids  are  taken  into  the 
stomach  of  a  higher  temperature  than  120  or  130°  Fah 
renheit.  Such  is  the  great  uncertainty  touching  this 
whole  question  of  diet  and  medication. 

Our  own  conviction  is  that  instinct,  or  whatever  else 
it  may  be  called,  is  the  safest  guide  in  this  matter  of 
eating  and  drinking.  If  a  man  has,  like  Sir  Roger  de 
Coverly,  "a  roast  beef  stomach,"  let  him  tackle  a  sir 
loin  ;  if  his  stomach  craves  cheese,  let  him  call  for  it, 
even  if  it  be  sweitzer.  If  he  relishes  a  plate  of  turtle 
soup  or  a  cup  of  black  coffee,  let  him  have  it  according 
to  his  liking.  The  brutes  find  their  medicine  in  herbs 
and  grasses,  and  possibly  never  make  a  mistake,  and 
likewise  as  to  their  food  unless  it  is  tampered  with.  In  cases 
of  willful  or  accidental  poisoning,  their  instinct  stands 
them  as  little  in  stead  as  man's  higher  reason  avails  him 
under  like  circumstances. 

We  reserve  to  another  time  what  we  may  wish  to  say 
on  the  subject  of  pedagogics,  which  we  referred  to  in 
the  outset  of  this  "penciling." 


Some  unknown  friend  has  placed  us  under  obligations 
by  sending  me  a  pamphlet  copy  of  the  alumni  address 
of  Col.  N.  J.  Hammond.  It  is  issued  by  The  Comtitu- 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  199 

tion  job  office,  and  in  the  best  style  of  the  typographic 
art.  Elsewhere  we  have  spoken  in  a  general  way  of  the 
merits  of  the  address.  We  propose  now  to  illustrate 
the  correctness  of  our  former  statement  by  reproducing 
a  single  brief  but  striking  passage  which  will  serve  as  a 
fair  sample  of  the  whole  address  : 

It  is  a  grand  thing  to  have  the  courage  of  one's  con 
victions.  Three  examples  stand  out  in  sacred  history 
to  teach  this  noble  courage.  Joshua  proclaiming  that 
whatever  Israel  may  decide  "  as  for  me  and  my  house 
we  will  serve  the  Lord  ;"  Daniel  worshipping  after  the 
proclamation  of  the  king  to  the  contrary,  just  as  he  did 
before ;  and  Paul  saying  he  would  go  to  Jerusalem  in 
spite  of  the  warning  of  Agabus  and  the  fears  and 
entreaties  of  his  friends.  No  less  in  business  affairs  and 
politics  than  in  religion  is  such  a  quality  admirable.  He 
inspires  confidence  who  hesitates  not  when  duty  calls, 
to  stake  the  presidency  upon  a  message. 

But  some  will  say  that  such  conduct  will  bring  defeat. 
That  depends  upon  what  we  mean  by  defeat.  If  mere 
ephemeral  success  be  all  that  is  hoped  for,  if  the  best 
role  is  that  of  the  trimmer,  and  the  missing  of  the  tem 
porary  rewards  of  such  conduct  be  want  of  success,  they 
are  right.  But 

"  Not  in  the  clamor  of  the  crowded  street, 
But  in  ourselves  are  triumph  and  defeat." 

When  Burke  was  taunted  that  the  Whig  party  had 
been  disgracefully  beaten,  he  replied  :  "  O  illustrious 
disgrace!  O  victorious  defeat !  May  your  memorial  be 
fresh  and  new  to  the  latest  generation.  *  *  *  Let 


2OO  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

no  man  hear  of  us  who  shall  not  hear  that  in  a  struggle 
against  the  intrigues  of  courts,  and  the  perfidious  levity 
of  the  multitude,  we  fell  in  the  cause  of  honor,  in  the 
cause  of  our  country,  in  the  cause  of  humanity  itself. 
But  if  fortune  should  be  as  powerful  over  fame  as  she 
has  been  over  virtue,  at  least  our  conscience  is  beyond 
her  jurisdiction." 


"Honest"  Hugh  Latimer,  of  immortal  memory,  was 
wiser  than  some  preachers  of  the  present  generation,  in 
that  he  believed  in  a  "personal  devil."  Not  a  few  have 
outgrown  this  article  of  the  creed  and  are  disposed,  like 
Burns,  to  poke  fun,  and  now  and  then  to  extend  sym 
pathy  to  "old  Splayfoot,"  as  Sam  Jones  has  christened 
him.  Barring  the  occasional  profanity,  Burns'  "Ad 
dress  to  the  Deil, "  is  one  of  the  best  serio  comic  poems  of 
British  literature.  How  widely  different  the  conception 
of  that  "rhyming,  ranting  bardie"  from  the  portrait  of 
Milton  in  "Paradise  Lost."  That  council  of  pande 
monium  in  which  Mammon,  Moloch  and  Belial,  and 
Satan  himself,  debate  in  parliamentary  style  the  burning 
issues  of  war  and  peace,  reads  like  a  page  of  modern 
history  in  which  the  Castlereaghs,  Metternichs  and  Tal- 
leyrands  figure  in  high  diplomatic  discussion. 

Some  critics  are  not  far  wrong  who  say  that  the  devil 
is  the  hero  of  the  great  English  epic.  Compared  with 
him,  the  lesser  devils  are  dwarfed  into  pigmies.  In  like 
manner  Adam  is  reduced  to  the  level  of  a  country 
squire,  and  Eve,  the  mother  of  us  all,  is  a  common 
place  personage,  except  when  departing  from  Eden  she 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  2OI 

breaks  forth  into  that  superb  apostrophe  to  the  lost 
Paradise  with  its  nuptial  bowers  and  its  beautifully 
graded  walks,  which  remind  us  of  some  of  the  best 
work  of  the  landscape  gardener.  Addison  was  the  first 
English  writer  to  popularize  "Paradise  Lost,"  which 
else  had  fallen  still  born  from  the  press.  In  these  latter 
days  it  is  frequently  talked  of,  but  seldom  read.  I 
fairly  devoured  it  fifty  years  ago,  but  I  question  if  in  the 
last  twenty  years  I  have  read  a  hundred  consecutive 
lines  at  a  sitting.  My  experience  in  this  line  is  not  ex 
ceptional.  The  shorter  poems  of  Milton,  such  as 
'  'L' Allegro  and  II  Penseroso, "  "Comus"'  and  the  sonnets 
are  still  read,  and  the  same  remark  applies  to  some  of 
his  prose  writings. 

But,  it  may  be  asked,  what  has  all  this  to  do  with  the 
devil?  We  might  reply  in  the  words  of  St.  Paul,  with 
reference  to  another  matter,  "  Much  every  way,  chiefly 
because  the  Satan  of  the  orthodox  creed  is  perhaps 
quite  as  much  Miltonic  as  scriptural.  We  do  not  mean 
to  concede  that  the  scriptures  do  not  teach  clearly  and 
impressively  the  fact  that  there  is  a  being,  if  you  please, 
"an  arch-angel  ruined,"  who  is  the  great  adversary  of 
Christ  and  his  kingdom.  Nor,  as  St.  Peter  says,  are 
the  enlightened  "ignorant  of  his  wiles."  How  far  he 
may  be  suffered  to  impress  and  influence  human  des 
tiny  is  not  fully  revealed.  But  of  this  we  are  assured, 
that  "  if  we  resist  him  he  will  flee  from  us." 


The  oldest  man    probably  since   Mathuselah    was  a 
Tyrolese   peasant,    who   was   born    in   the   seventeenth 


2O2  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

century  and  survived  the  storming  of  the  bastile  and  the 
downfall  of  the  French  monarchy.  A  visit  which  he 
made  to  Paris  is  described  by  Carlyle  in  his  history  of 
the  French  revolution.  He  was  granted  almost  as 
striking  an  ovation  as  was  Voltaire  on  his  last  visit  to 
Paris.  How  checkered  the  experiences  of  a  centena 
rian  !  If  compiled,  what  a  volume  they  would  make  ! 
What  a  blending  of  smiles  and  tears!  What  a  jumble 
of  tragic  and  comic  scenes !  What  a  mixture  of  pathos 
and  pleasantry  !  But  greater  still  the  manifold  experi 
ences  of  a  man  who  lived  nine  hundred  and  sixty  and 
nine  years.  Is  the  scriptural  chronology  at  fault  ?  If 
we  remember  that  the  Hebrew  writers  had  neither  Ara 
bic  nor  Roman  numerals,  we  see  how  mistakes  might 
have  occurred. 

We  may  form  some  idea  of  the  immense  longevity  of 
Mathuselah,  if  we  compare  his  age  with  that  of  the 
British  Empire.  The  old  Hebrew  patriarch  might  have 
fought  at  Hastings  in  1066,  and  lived  on  until  the  last 
Plantagenet  was  entombed  at  Westminster.  He  would 
have  been  in  the  prime  of  life  during  the  Wars  of  the 
Roses,  and  might  have  witnessed  the  funeral  obsequies 
of  Elizabeth,  the  last  of  the  Tudor  line.  He  would 
have  been  but  little  past  middle  life  when  Marlborough 
fought  and  won  at  Blenheim,  and  when  Anne  of  Den 
mark,  the  last  of  the  Stuarts,  gave  way  to  the  house  of 
Hanover,  and  thus  on  and  on  until  now  he  would  be 
somewhat  gray  and  wrinkled,  and  yet  in  a  fair  way  to 
see  the  close  of  the  twentieth  century.  The  brain  reels 
under  the  weight  of  such  a  computation,  and  we  are 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  2O3 

disposed  to  thank  the  gracious  One  that  now  fixes  four 
score  years  as  the  limit  of  man's  life-pilgrimage. 


Ex  Senator  Strother,  of  Lincoln,  is  known  to  be  a 
great  admirer  of  the  ladies,  but  it  is  not  so  generally 
known  that  he  has  a  passion  for  mathematics,  especially 
the  calculus  integral  and  differential.  After  talking  with 
him  quite  awhile  on  that  subject  I  switched  him  off  on 
Longstreet's  story  of  the  dark  corner  of  Lincoln  in  the 
"  Georgia  Scenes."  He  says  that  this  famous  locality 
is  in  the  Southeastern  corner  ot  the  county  where  it 
abuts  on  the  Savannah  river,  and  only  about  thirty 
miles  distant  from  Augusta.  The  hero  of  the  tale  was 
one  Shade  Wethers,  a  sort  of  happy-go-lucky  wight, 
who  was  excessively  fond  of  strong  drink.  He  was 
anything  but  a  bully  himself,  being  a  very  inoffensive 
personage.  But  Wethers,  like  Ransy  Sniffle,  had  a 
keen  relish  for  a  cross  roads  fisticuff,  and  would  often 
walk  to  the  court  house  on  muster  or  election  days  that 
he  might  witness  any  exhibition  of  the  kind  which  should 
turn  up.  He  was  in  this  mood  probably  when  he  impro 
vised  the  private  theatricals  in  the  skirt  of  woods  through 
which  Longstreet  passed  on  his  way  to  Lincolnton.  From 
the  amount  of  cussing  and  cavorting  made  by  Wethers, 
Longstreet  thought  that  he  was  in  a  stone's  cast  of  a 
Donnybrook  fair,  and  when  the  Judge  turned  aside  to 
read  the  riot  act  or  command  the  peace,  he  was  amazed 
to  find  but  a  single  actor  in  the  melee. 

Wethers,  as  the  Judge  states,  put  on  a  hang  dog  look 
when  he  demanded  of  him  where  his  antagonist  was. 


2O4  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

He  naively  replied  that  he  was  "jest'er  seeing  how  he 
could  have  fout. "  It  was  for  printing  such  humorous  and 
sketches  as  this  that  some  of  the  strait-breasted  Metho 
dist  clergy,  like  Uncle  John  Collinsworth,  who  voted 
against  licensing  George  Pierce  to  preach,  were  inclined 
to  call  Judge  Longstreet  to  account  at  the  bar  of  the 
conference.  Senator  Strother  protests  that  the  militia 
muster,  of  which  Oliver  H  Prince  contributed  an 
account  to  the  Georgia  Scenes,  did  not  occur  in  Lincoln, 
but  in  Wilkes.  He  is  probably  jealous  of  the  honor  of 
the  county  which  he  has  so  ably  represented. 


Our  Pat  Calhoun  is  clearly  ' '  a  chip  of  the  old  block. " 
We  do  not  accept  his  subtreasury  views,  but,  take  his 
address  to  the  Legislature  in  its  totality,  and  it  is  char 
acterized  by  a  vigor  of  thought  and  terseness  of  state 
ment  that  reminds  us  of  that  great  Carolinian  who  met 
and  triumphantly  refuted  the  great  Webster  in  their 
joint  discussion  of  the  States'  rights  resolutions  in  1834. 
We  are  certainly  influenced  by  no  personal  considera 
tions  in  this  estimate,  for  our  acquaintance  with  Mr. 
Pat  Calhoun  does  not  go  beyond  a  single  introduction. 


Queen  Victoria  conferred  a  baronetcy  on  General 
Havelock  for  his  gallant  services  during  the  Sepoy 
rebellion.  But  the  merited  honor  came  too  late,  for 
that  noble  Christian  warrior  had  died  three  weeks 
before  the  distinction  was  bestowed.  The  next  best 
thing  was  done  in  conferring  the  title  on  his  oldest  son, 
a  young  man  of  rare  promise  and  of  splendid  character. 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  2O5 

At  one  period  of  his  life  John  C.  Calhoun  dom 
inated  the  thought  and  politics  of  South  Carolina  as 
fully  as  did  Pericles  the  thought  of  Athens  in  its  palm 
iest  days.  So  that  it  become  a  proverb,  coarse  but 
expressive,  that  when  Mr.  Calhoun  took  snuff  the  whole 
State  from  Pickens'  Nose  to  Charleston  would  sneeze. 
Hammond  and  Pettigru  and  a  few  others  were  possible 
exceptions,  but  the  one  man  who  was  his  peer  in  schol 
arship  and  intellectual  compass,  and  who  boldly  antag 
onized  his  theory  of  government,  was  Hugh  Swinton 
Legare,  the  head  and  front  of  Whigism  in  that  Jeffer- 
sonian  stronghold.  As  David  B.  Hill  proclaims  "I  am 
a  Democrat,"  so  Legare  thanked  God  "that  he  was  a 
Huguenot."  His  educational  opportunities  were  of  the 
best.  In  early  boyhood  he  was  a  pupil  of  Waddell  at 
the  Wellington  Academy  in  Abbeville  district.  From 
thence  he  went  to  the  State  College  at  Columbia,  where 
he  graduated  with  the  highest  distinction.  From  Colum 
bia  he  went  to  Edinburgh,  having  Preston  for  his  fellow 
collegian.  In  that  far-famed  university  he  took  high 
rank,  and  was  occasionally  brought  in  personal  contact 
with  the  great  lights  of  "Auld  Reekie,"  the  center  of 
learning  in  Great  Britain.  After  a  good  deal  of  conti 
nental  travel  he  returned  to  Charleston  and  opened  a 
law  office,  and  at  the  age  of  forty-five  was  Attorney- 
General  of  the  United  States.  He  died  three  years 
thereafter  in  Boston,  at  the  house  of  his  bosom  friend, 
Ticknor,  whose  studies  in  Spanish  literature  have  been 
an  honor  to  his  country. 

We  have  reproduced  these  biographic  details  partly 


2O6  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

to  illustrate  the  facility  with  which  a  very  great  man 
may  be  forgotten,  but  chiefly  as  preparatory  to  a  more 
important  statement,  that  but  for  the  opposition  of 
Legare  and  Pettigru  to  the  nullification  movement 
South  Carolina  might  have  precipitated  a  dissolution  of 
the  Union  thirty  years  before  the  first  gun  was  fired  at 
Sumter.  In  that  event  we  might  long  ere  this  have 
had  two  sister  republics  side  by  side  in  good  working 
order.  On  such  slight  contingencies  very  often  hinge 
the  fate  of  great  men  and  the  destiny  of  vast  empires. 


Poor  Goldsmith  had  at  times  a  misanthropic  mood, 
or  perhaps  we  ought  to  say  a  fit  of  nervous  depression 
that  beclouded  his  usually  sunny  temper.  It  was  at 
such  a  time  doubtless  that  he  penned  that  hackneyed 
quartrain — 

"What  is  friendship  but  a  name  ? 

A  charm  that  lulls  to  sleep, 
A  shade  that  follows  wealth  or  fame 

And  leaves  the  wretch  to  weep." 

There  are  many  faithless  ones  in  all  circles,  but  the 
above  sentiment  is  too  broad  a  generalization.  That 
man  has  been  indeed  singularly  unfortunate  whose 
experience  does  not  contradict  this  pessimistic  state 
ment.  It  is  not  every  day  that  we  encounter  a  "  fidus 
Achates,"  nor  are  we  apt  to  stumble  with  even  less  fre 
quency  on  a  friendship  like  that  which  knit  the  souls  of 
David  and  Jonathan.  And  yet  we  ourselves  must  be 
quite  undeserving  if  we  have  not  on  our  list  of  friends, 
a  goodly  number,  who  have  never  faltered  in  their  devo- 


PARAGRAHH1C  PENCILINGS.  2O/ 

tion  to  us  and  our  fortunes.  These  life-long  friendships 
do  not  always  have  their  root  in  similarity  of  tastes. 
As  opposite  electricities  attract  each  other,  so  differ 
ences  of  mental  and  physical  temperament  will  often 
bind  men  together  as  with  "hooks  of  steel." 

Goldsmith  and  Johnson  were  unlike  in  very  many 
respects,  and  yet  there  is  no  reason  to  question  that 
Goldsmith  loved  his  illustrious  friend,  however  he  was 
worried  by  his  dogmatism — nor  is  there  any  reason  to 
doubt  that  this  affection  was  reciprocated. 


Some  of  the  ablest  writers  for  the  religious  press  are 
beginning  to  realize  that  the  multiplication  of  societies 
for  various  moral  purposes  is  likely  to  prove  a  hindrance 
to  the  church  in  its  legitimate  work.  The  danger  seems 
imminent  that  the  church  will  be  cumbered  and  weighed 
down  by  a  superabundance  of  machinery.  Nor  is  it  less 
to  be  feared  that  individual  Christian  efforts  will  be 
weakened  or  utterly  paralyzed.  The  "  fad  "  comes  from 
New  England,  where,  amongst  some  good  things,  many 
evil  things  are  wont  to  originate.  The  colored  brother 
has  caught  the  infection,  and  we  see  processions  with 
badges  and  banners  moving  through  our  streets,  bear 
ing  such  unique  inscriptions  as  these  :  "  The  Weeping 
Sons  of  Jacob,"  and  "The  Mourning  Doves  of  Zion." 
To  take  a  single  illustration  of  our  main  thought,  alms 
giving,  which  is  an  eminent  virtue  and  an  obvious  per 
sonal  duty,  is  relegated  to  benevolent  associations,  to 
the  serious  detriment  of  the  pious  giver.  The  Apostle 
James  has  given  us  the  best  Scriptural  definition  of  relig- 


2O8  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

ion.  "True  religion  and  undefiled  *  *  *  is  to  visit 
the  fatherless  and  the  widow  in  their  affliction,  and  to 
keep  himself  unspotted  from  the  world. "  The  word  visit 
in  the  text  is  not  put  there  by  accident,  but  for  a  wise 
purpose.  It  involves  the  idea  of  personal  contact  with 
human  want  and  wretchedness.  It  enjoins  something 
beyond  the  mere  bestowment  of  money,  needful  as  that 
may  be.  It  implies  a  personal  visitation,  during  which 
there  shall  be  the  expression  of  sympathy  for  the  suffer 
er  and  an  earnest  endeavor  by  word  and  look  to  uplift 
the  forlorn  and  shipwrecked  brother. 

It  was  wise  in  the  Apostle  Peter,  when  he  would 
relieve  the  impotent  man  at  the  beautiful  gate  of  the 
temple,  to  take  him  by  the  hand  and  lift  him  up.  The 
Apostolic  touch  thrilled  the  poor  fellow  and  put  him  in 
a  receptive  mood,  so  that  he  was  ready  to  respond  to 
the  foregone  commandment,  "In  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ  of  Nazareth  rise  up  and  walk  "  Is  it  strange 
that  immediately  he  rose  and  stood  erect,  and  walked 
and  even  leaped  ?  It  was  in  allusion  to  this  incident 
that  Erasmus  said  to  Leo  X.  that  the  church  of  the  six 
teenth  century  had  lost  its  power  to  make  the  lame  man 
rise  up  and  walk.  The  church  of  to-day  is  only  in  a  less 
measure  shorn  of  its  strength  from  like  causes.  It 
affects  cushioned  pews,  frescoed  walls  and  carpeted 
aisles ;  it  withdraws  itself  from  the  company  of  publi 
cans  and  sinners.  Outside  of  the  Salvation  Army  and 
the  half-starved  missionary,  it  leaves  the  poor  and  the 
friendless  to  drift  away  from  Heaven  and  happiness. 

It  doles  out  a  pittance  by  proxy,  but  never  soils  itself 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  2O<j 

by  closer  contact  with  the  dependent  classes.  If  I  were 
called  upon  to  say  who,  of  the  priesthood,  had  in  these 
latter  days  exhibited  the  most  Christ-like  spirit,  I  should 
without  hesitancy  name  Father  Damien,  who  ministered 
to  the  leprous  community  of  the  Sandwich  Islands. 
His  theology  was  little  better  than  that  of  St.  Dominic, 
the  founder  of  the  Inquisition,  but  his  religion  was  like 
that  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the  Son  of  God  and  the 
Saviour  of  men. 


I  remember  in  my  boyhood  attending  a  Harrison 
meeting,  where  Dr.  DeGraffenried,  of  Columbus,  Ga., 
the  father  of  our  Marshall  DeGraffenried,  was  one  of  the 
speakers.  The  "Tip  and  Ty"  excitement  was  just 
developing  into  the  political  freshet  that  revolutionized 
the  country.  The  doctor  was  a  Virginia  gentleman  of 
the  old  school,  and,  like  Judge  W.  H.  Underwood,  an 
avowed  federalist.  He  had  just  returned  from  a  north 
ern  tour,  and  was  describing  the  uprising  of  the  masses 
for  the  old  farmer  of  North  Bend.  The  report  electri 
fied  his  Whig  audience,  and  the  applause  was  deafening. 
Amongst  other  palpable  hits  was  his  saying  that  from 
Augusta,  where  he  crossed  the  State  line,  to  Columbus, 
he  had  passed  through  but  one  county  that  would  poll 
a  majority  for  Van  Buren,  and  that  was  Trout  county. 
Some  party  friend  interrupted  the  speaker  with  the  sug 
gestion  that  it  was  Pike,  not  Trout  county.  The  old 
doctor  paused  for  a  moment,  and  added  in  a  sort  of 
parenthesis:  "Well,"  said  he,  "I  knew  it  was  some 


210  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

blank  fish  county!"  The  uproar  of  laughter  that  fol 
lowed  can  be  better  imagined  than  described.  Nothing 
like  that  log  cabin  campaign  has  been  seen  since  in 
Georgia.  The  present  alliance  movement  is  a  tame 
affair  in  comparison. 


It  was  during  the  premiership  of  Disraeli  that  a 
mitred  dignitary  of  the  English  church  was  remarking 
on  the  perverseness  of  a  brilliant  young  clergyman. 
Said  his  grace,  with  evident  concern:  "He  is  mani 
festly  verging  on  Puseyism,  and  I  am  at  a  loss  as  to  the 
proper  disposition  to  be  made  of  him."  The  great 
tory  leader  responded :  "  If  you  will  make  him  a 
Bishop,  you  will  cure  his  doctrinal  vagaries."  The 
proposed  remedy  was  tested,  and  proved  effectual. 
Official  promotion,  whether  in  church  or  state,  is  quite 
sure  to  correct  erratic  tendencies. 


The  old  Romans  had  a  saying  that  if  a  citizen  had  chil 
dren  he  had  given  hostages  to  the  republic.  With  rare  ex 
ceptions,  the  ranks  of  communism  are  recruited  from 
those  classes  that  are  badly  conditioned.  A  small  freehold 
is  apt  to  make  a  man  conservative  in  his  political  views. 
Village  attorneys  were,  indeed,  prominent  in  the  French 
revolution,  but  t'^e  men  that  stormed  the  Bastile,  and 
did  the  bidding  of  Robespiere,  were  the  sans-cullotic 
rabble  of  the  slums.  Well-to-do  people  are  not  likely, 
except  under  great  provocation,  to  rush  into  riot  and 
revolution. 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  211 

"  Duruy's  History  of  Rome"  is  the  most  exhaustive 
work  of  its  kind  that  has  fallen  under  our  notice. 

This  French  author  has  completed  the  work  which 
Niebuhr  began,  but  left  unfinished.  No  portion  of  the 
six  volumes  of  this  elaborate  history  is  of  greater  impor 
tance  than  that  which  relates  to  the  period  of  the  two 
great  triumvirates.  Especially  do  his  admirable  por 
traitures  of  Cicero,  Cataline,  Pompey  and  Julius  Caesar 
almost  compensate  for  the  lost  books  of  Livy.  His 
explanation  of  the  causes  of  the  decay  of  agriculture  in 
the  Italian  peninsula  is  a  sort  of  historical  revelation. 
He  argues  that  with  a  tariff  system  like  the  English  corn 
laws,  the  empire  would  not  have  fallen  so  easy  a  prey 
to  the  northern  barbarians.  It  was  certainly  an  alarm 
ing  condition  of  affairs  when  the  world's  great  capital 
was  dependent  for  its  food  supplies  on  corn  ships  from 
Egypt,  Sardinia,  Sicily  and  remoter  countries.  It  was  a 
fearful  aggravation  when  one  of  the  twelve  Caesars 
ordered  some  of  the  ships  at  Alexandria  to  be  loaded 
with  sand  for  the  arena,  making  the  then  existing 
scarcity  more  stringent  and  appalling.  This  was  but 
the  prelude  to  the  dark  days  of  the  latter  empire.  Can 
it  be  that  the  corrupt  political  methods  of  these  evil 
days  are  preparing  our  own  country  for  a  like  doom 
and  destiny  ? 


There  is  a  small  class  of  educationists  whose  cranki 
ness  borders  on  lunacy.  These  have  told  us  that  in  the 
late  Franco-Prussian  war  Germany  conquered  France  by 
the  Pestalozzian  system  ot  education.  They  make  but 


212  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

little  account  of  the  military  drill  and  discipline  be 
queathed  by  the  great  Frederick,  or  of  the  admira 
ble  transportation  service  organized  by  Moltke  and  Bis 
marck. 

How  does  this  view  comport  with  the  admitted  fact 
that,  perhaps,  the  best  fighting  troops  of  modern  Eu 
rope  were  the  illiterate  boy  conscripts,  that  Napoleon 
gathered  out  of  the  lanes  and  alleys  of  Paris  and  Mar 
seilles  ?  Verily,  those  learned  Thebans  are  hobby-horsi- 
cal  in  their  habits. 

One  Lossing,  who  writes  history  for  the  youth,  in  a 
contribution  to  the  New  York  Independent,  lectures  Dr. 
Curry  and  Bishop  Haygood  for  characterizing  the  little 
unpleasantness  that  ended  at  Appomattox  as  a  "war 
between  the  States."  He  thinks  the  right  term  is  re 
bellion — written  in  capitals.  We  wish  that  our  people 
would  boycott  all  such  writers. 


Asbury  Hull,  Elbridge  G  Cabiness  and  R.  A,  T. 
Ridley  were  typical  Whigs  of  the  anti-bellum  days. 
They  were  close,  personal  friends  and  trusted  counsel 
ors  of  Berrien,  Crawford,  Toombs  and  Stephens.  All 
of  them  were  prominent  figures  in  Georgia  politics. 
One  thing  was  strikingly  characteristic  of  these  follow 
ers  of  Henry  Clay  They  were  noted  for  their  personal 
cleanliness.  Zeb  Vance,  who  had  a  knack  of  saying 
sharp  things,  used  to  say  that  the  Whigs  as  a  class  wore 
standing  collars,  well  polished  boots  and  claw-hammer 
coats.  In  a  word  they  had  the  appearance  of  gentle 
men,  and  even  a  bit  of  the  true  nobleman  look.  Asbury 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  213 

Hull,  who  died  a  few  years  ago  in  Athens,  while  reading 
his  morning  lesson  in  the  scriptures,  was  chosen  two  or 
more  times  as  President  of  the  Senate.  Cabiness  was  a 
circuit  judge  and  chairman  of  the  State  Executive  Com 
mittee  during  the  Gordon  and  Bullock  campaign. 
Ridley  several  times  represented  the  grand  old  county 
of  Troup  in  the  State  Legislature,  was  more  than 
once  on  the  Whig  electoral  ticket  and  was  a  bosom 
friend  of  Ben  Hill.  They  were  all  staunch  church 
members.  Hull  and  Ridley  Methodists  and  Cabiness  a 
Baptist.  Let  it  not  be  inferred,  however,  that  the  Clay 
and  Everett  Whigs  had  a  monopoly  of  the  decencies 
or  elegancies  of  this  remote  period.  On  the  contrary, 
there  were  such  men  as  Walter  H.  Mitchell,  Henry 
Todd  and  Dr.  Joel  Branham,  who  were  Democrats  of 
the  straitest  sect.  Walter  H.  Mitchell  was  the  father  of 
the  first  wife  of  Chief  Justice  Jackson,  and  was  for  years 
a  prominent  State  House  official  at  the  old  capitol. 
Henry  Todd  was  a  wealthy  planter,  residing  near  West 
Point,  who  eschewed  office-seeking.  Joel  Branham  was 
a  Middle  Georgia  physician  of  great  distinction.  They 
were  all  educated,  and  of  the  best  lineage.  In  one 
respect  they  were  all  men  of  note  amongst  their  con 
temporaries.  As  conversationalists  and  story  tellers  of 
the  old  school,  they  had  few  superiors.  Indeed  you 
must  needs  go  a  long  journey  to  find  two  men  who 
could  better  entertain  a  dinner  party  than  Todd  and 
Mitchell,  when  in  their  best  mood.  Branham  was  at 
times  quite  as  felicitous  in  the  same  role;  and  then,  as  a 
political  stump  speaker,  he  had  few  equals  in  his  gene- 


214  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

ration.  By  a  singular  coincidence  they  were  all  Meth 
odists,  and  great  admirers  of  Lovick  Pierce,  Sam 
Anthony  and  Billy  Parks.  Men  of  the  class  we  have 
mentioned  have  no  successors.  The  changes  in  polit 
ical  and  social  conditions  have  prevented  this,  but  their 
descendants  are  amongst  our  most  worthy  and  honored 
citizens. 


When  Lord  Cardigan  was  ordered  to  charge  the  Rus 
sian  batteries  at  Balaklava,  he  instantly  sprung  to  his 
saddle,  and  putting  himself  at  the  head  of  the  column, 
he  shouted  in  a  ringing  voice:  "  Forward,  the  Light 
Brigade."  As  the  column,  with  dancing  plumes  and 
glittering  sabers,  dashed  forward  at  a  hand  gallop,  the 
brave  commander  said  to  his  nearest  staff  officer :  "Here 
goes  the  last  of  the  Cardigans."  And  yet  such  are  the 
fortunes  of  war  that  he  was  one  of  the  few  of  rank  that 
came  out  of  the  "jaws  of  hell,"  unscathed  by  sword  or 
bullet. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  order  that  brought  about 
this  terrible  sacrifice  of  human  life  was  a  forgery — Lord 
Lucan  denying  that  he  ever  signed  such  an  order.  This 
example,  however,  of  heoric  daring  was  worth  all  that 
it  cost.  It  will  hold  its  place  in  history  with  the  con 
duct  of  the  three  hundred  that  kept  the  pass  at  Ther 
mopylae  and  of  McDonald's  division  with  its  magnificent 
charge  at  Wagram.  These  transcendental  feats  of  brav 
ery  make  the  brightest  pages  in  the  annals  of  war. 
They  lift  it  above  the  low  level  of  brute  courage  and 
savage  ferocity  and  invest  it  with  the  iridescent  hues  of 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  21  5 

the  noblest  exhibitions  of  chivalry  as  chronicled  by 
Froissart  or  as  chanted  in  epic  strains  by  "the  blind  old 
Bard  of  Scio's  rocky  isle."  After  all,  war  is  not  of  ne 
cessity  an  unmitigated  social  evil.  As  the  tempest  puri 
fies  the  atmosphere,  clearing  it  of  deadly  malaria,  so  the 
shock  of  battle  brings  out  some  of  the  best  qualities  of 
genuine  manhood  which  otherwise  would  have  lain  dor 
mant  and  unknown.  An  occasional  blood-letting  purges 
alike  the  body  natural  and  the  body  politic  of  vicious 
humors.  Quakerism  has  never  developed  the  highest 
style  of  Christian  civilization. 


Some  one  has  designated  Victor  Hugo  in  thoroughly 
French  phraseology  as  the  "enfant  sublime,"  and  yet 
it  is  on  record  by  the  family  physician,  or  perhaps  his 
mother,  that  at  his  birth  he  was  not  longer  than  a  break 
fast  knife,  with  a  life  expectation  hardly  worth  the  labor 
of  computation.  But  he  survived  the  perils  of  infancy, 
became  a  peer  of  France  and  a  writer  unequaled  by  any 
European  contemporary.  Political  troubles  drove  him 
from  his  native  land  in  1851  and  shut  him  up  in  the 
island  of  Guernsey,  one  of  the  five  channel  islands  best 
known  for  their  superb  breed  of  milch  cows.  In  this 
literary  seclusion  he  wrote  his  masterpieces,  "  Les 
Miserables  ''  and  "  The  Toilers  of  the  Sea."  It  was  in 
the  former  that  he  discussed  John  Brown's  murderous 
raid  on  Harper's  Ferry.  It  was  a  singular  misappre 
hension  which  led  him  to  discover  an  analogy  between 
this  foray  of  Brown  and  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill.  The 
object  of  Brown  and  his  aiders  and  abettors  was  plunder 


2l6  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

and  rapine.  It  is  not  credible  that  he  hoped  in  any 
degree  to  better  the  condition  of  the  slaves.  The  most 
charitable  construction  of  the  affair  is  that  he  was  a 
monomaniac,  who  was  used  by  the  abolition  leaders  to 
precipitate  a  sectional  struggle  that  might  bring  them 
official  position  and  personal  emolument.  It  is  not  to 
be  wondered  at  that  Gerrit  Smith,  who  had  instigated 
the  movement,  lost  his  head  when  informed  of  Brown's 
disastrous  failure  and  his  subsequent  execution.  It  is 
difficult  to  believe  that  Brown's  entire  force  consisted  of 
but  seventeen  whites  and  three  negroes.  He,  however, 
counted  largely  on  recruits  from  the  Virginia  slaves, 
but  these  recruits  did  not  materialize. 

There  is  no  room  for  questioning  John  Brown's  cour 
age.  That  was  shown  on  the  hottest  battlefields  of 
Kansas  when,  as  at  Lawrence,  Ossawatomie  and  Black 
Jack,  he  distinguished  himself  as  an  intrepid  and  skill 
ful  partisan  leader.  He  met  his  doom  under  the  gallows 
tree  with  stolid  indifference.  The  story  of  his  kissing 
the  child  of  the  slave-mother  at  the  foot  of  the  scaffold  is 
sheer  fiction,  but  it  is  true  according  to  the  testimony  of 
eye-witnesses  that  as  he  ascended  the  steps  of  the  gallows 
he  showed  the  courage  of  his  convictions.  When  asked 
by  the  sheriff  to  take  a  handkerchief  and  drop  it  as  a 
signal  when  he  was  ready,  he  replied  that  he  "did  not 
want  it,  but  do  not,"  he  added,  "keep  me  longer  than 
is  necessary.'1 

Since  his  death  it  has  been  claimed  that  his  ancestors 
came  over  in  the  Mayflower.  Whether  this  be  an  after 
thought  invented  by  those  who  would  invest  his  brow 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  2  I/ 

with  the  aureole  of  the  martyr  it  is  quite  evident  that 
he  had  a  measure  of  the  pluck  and  persistence  of  the  old 
Puritan  warriors  that  fought  under  Cromwell  and  Ireton. 
This  Harper's  Ferry  raid  was  the  initial  chapter  of  the 
war  between  the  states  and  only  antedated  the  first  gun 
at  Sumter  by  about  eighteen  months. 

Before  finally  dismissing  the  subject,  we  recur  to  our 
statement  that  the  slave  population  in  the  vicinity  of 
Harper's  Ferry  kept  aloof  from  any  complicity  with 
the  movement.  The  colored  troops  are  accredited  by 
Northern  histories  with  "fighting  nobly"  on  some 
occasions,  but  this  usually  occurred  when  there  were 
bayonets  at  their  backs  to  urge  them  forward.  At  Har 
per's  Ferry,  the  Virginia  darkey  had  no  fancy  for 
handling  John  Brown's  pikes.  We  find  in  an  old  Balti 
more  magazine  this  reminiscence  of  one  who  was  on 
the  ground:  "One  sturdy  fellow  said  that  when  he 
was  taken  a  pike  was  put  into  his  hand,  and  the  old 
abolitionist  exhorted  him  to  'strike  for  liberty.1' 
"  Good  Lord,  Massa,"  cried  Cuffy  in  a  tremor,  "  I  don't 
know  nuffin'  about  handlin'  these  tings."  "Take  it 
instantly,"  shouted  Brown,  "and  strike  home."  The 
negro  couldn't  see  the  point,  however.  "Don't  you 
know  me  ?  "  cried  Brown.  "  Didn't  you  never  hear  of 
John  Brown,  of  Ossawatomie?"  This  frightened  the 
negroes  all  the  more,  and  they  fled  to  the  hayricks  and 
other  places  of  refuge  for  shelter.  This  writer  ex 
presses  the  belief  that  they  would  then  and  there  have 
fought  at  the  bidding  of  their  old  master. 


2l8  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

Our  friend,  Mr.  J.  H.  Rucker,  furnishes  another  Cal 
ifornia  story  of  a  graver  tone  than  that  concerning  Bill 
Jones  and  his  Jersey  sweetheart.  At  Gold  Hill,  which 
was  Mr.  Rucker's  mining  headquarters,  religious  ser 
vices  were  seldom  conducted  by  the  ministry.  At 
longer  or  shorter  intervals  a  preacher  would  come  that 
way,  and  all  classes  would  importune  him  to  give  them 
an  appointment.  On  one  occasion  a  Methodist  minister 
consented  to  preach,  and  as  there  was  neither  chapel 
nor  suitable  hall  in  the  village,  the  landlord  of  the  hotel 
improvised  a  desk  in  front  of  the  bar,  where  wines  and 
stronger  beverages  were  sold  by  the  single  drink  or  the 
quart. 

A  congregation  of  fifty  or  more  assembled  at  the  hour 
appointed  for  the  service.  The  minister  having  sung 
and  prayed,  was  proceeding  to  announce  his  text,  when 
two  well  known  and  much  dreaded  desperadoes,  par 
tially  intoxicated,  appeared  upon  the  scene.  They 
seemed  bent  on  some  deviltry,  as  with  a  swaggering  and 
defiant  air  they  demanded  drinks  of  the  bartender. 
Everybody  knew  that  a  refusal  of  their  demand  might 
lead  to  riot  and  bloodshed.  The  minister  paused  with 
out  exhibiting  any  signs  of  trepidation.  The  bar 
tender  quietly  directed  them  to  help  themselves,  which 
they  did  in  presence  of  the  preacher  and  congregation. 
Having  each  imbibed  a  half  pint  or  more,  they  deliber 
ately  walked  away.  Out  of  ear-shot,  the  minister  went 
on  with  his  sermon  without  further  molestation.  Such 
scenes,  many  of  them  more  turbulent,  not  unfrequently 
occurred  in  the  mining  regions  in  those  early  days  of 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  219 

California  history.  The  preachers  of  that  day  did  not 
wear  a  sword,  but  they  were,  emphatically,  militant 
saints,  and  on  rare  occasions  were  forced  to  resort  to 
carnal  weapons  for  self  protection.  The  late  Dr.  Jesse 
Boring  was  engaged  in  this  pioneer  work  for  several 
years,  and  many  of  his  California  adventures  and  expe 
riences  ought  to  be  perpetuated  in  book  form.  Bishop 
Fitzgerald  and  Rev.  R.  W.  Bigham  have  both  contrib 
uted  some  very  readable  volumes  to  the  literature  of 
this  subject. 


General  John  H.  Morgan  was  no  ''literary  feller"  as 
Simon  Cameron  phrases  it,  but  a  lively  fighter,  who 
stirred  up  things  generally  beyond  the  Ohio.  At  one 
time  he  visited  Atlanta,  being  chaperoned  by  Colonel 
Bob  Alston,  himself  a  dashing  cavalier.  Morgan  was  a 
man  of  majestic  stature,  and  of  a  personal  daring  and  a 
personal  magnetism  that  fitted  him  to  head  a  forlorn 
hope  in  the  crisis  of  battle.  He  was  greeted  in  Atlanta 
with  great  enthusiasm,  and  especially  by  the  female  citi 
zenry.  During  his  stay  quite  a  number  of  our  most 
prominent  ladies  wished  to  present  him  with  a  beautiful 
gold-headed  cane,  upon  which  he  might  lean,  after  he 
had  hung  up  his  battered  sword  in  the  halls  of  victory. 
A  gentleman  well-known  to  the  writer  was  asked  to 
make  a  short  presentation  speech.  Consenting  to  do 
so,  he  thought  it  proper  to  see  the  General  and  inform 
him  of  the  programme.  When  the  General  learned  that 
a  reply  would  be  expected  from  him,  he  turned  pale 
and  red  by  turns  and  said  to  the  gentleman  :  "  My  dear 


22O  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

sir,  I  am  no  speaker  and  I  had  rather  storm  a  yankee 
battery  than  to  make  a  speech."  At  his  earnest  request 
the  programme  was  changed — so  that  the  cane  was 
handed  him  with  a  note  in  behalf  of  the  ladies.  To  this 
he  made  a  very  tasteful  written  reply.  The  ladies, 
however,  called  on  him  in  a  body.  He  conversed  very 
pleasantly  with  them  for  some  fifteen  minutes.  During 
this  interview  a  young  miss  was  toying  with  the  hand 
kerchief  in  the  General's  coat  pocket,  and  by  some 
legerdemain  succeeded  in  extracting  it.  The  General 
was  evidently  conscious  of  the  mischief,  but  good-hu- 
moredly  feigned  ignorance.  After  the  ladies  retired  the 
handkerchief  was  torn  into  strips  and  distributed  amongst 
the  party.  My  lady  informant  tells  me  that  she  kept 
hers  as  a  sort  of  souvenir  of  the  General's  visit  for  some 
years,  until  it  was  misplaced  and  lost. 


A  much  admired  conversationalist  of  the  olden  times 
once  said  that  "conversation  between  more  than  two 
persons  was  an  impossibility."  This  disposes  of  table 
talk  and  other  babblement  of  a  convivial  kind  Addi 
son's  statement  was  perhaps  too  strong,  but  it  is  un 
questionably  true  that  a  conversation  tete-a-tete  is  prefer 
able  to  the  din  of  the  city  club,  or  the  buzz  of  the  vil 
lage  sewing  circle.  In  these  promiscuous  gatherings 
cheekiness  rather  than  brains  takes  the  leadership,  and 
the  Gratiano  "who  talks  an  infinite  deal  of  nothing," 
carries  the  crowd.  To  soliloquize  is  one  thing  and  to 
converse,  as  the  terms  imply,  is  quite  another  thing. 
Coleridge  was  a  great  success  in  the  former  role ;  so  was 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  221 

Madam  de  Stael,  the  daughter  of  Necker,  who  would, 
at  times,  monopolize  both  the  big  and  small  talk  of  a 
Parisian  salon.  Most  persons  have,  at  times,  encoun 
tered  the  monologist,  who  would  put  the  "Ancient 
Mariner''  to  the  blush.  Think  of  a  man  with  an  im 
portant  engagement  staring  him  in  the  face,  who  is 
abruptly  button-holed  at  the  street  corner  and  con 
strained  to  listen  to  a  dry  narrative  of  a  half-hour's 
length.  Some  years  ago  we  had  a  carload  of  Northern 
visitors  at  one  of  the  State  fairs.  Albert  Lamar,  who 
was  not  in  the  best  humor  with  these  visiting  brethren, 
remarked  that  he  was  glad  they  were  to  be  entertained 
by  Colonel  ,  who  was  distinguished  for  his  exu 
berant  loquacity.  Lamar  said  that  it  was  a  sweet 
revenge  for  the  downfall  of  the  Confederacy.  "Live 
and  let  live  "  is  a  good  motto  in  conversation  as  in 
business.  Give  your  patient  listener  credit  for  know 
ing  something. 

Is  there  either  "rhyme  or  reason"  in  this  clangor  of 
church  bells  on  Sabbath  morning?  When  watches  are 
so  cheap  and  steeple  clocks  are  so  numerous,  cannot 
the  congregation  assemble  without  the  summons  of  a 
notice  bell?  We  are  aware  that  Cowper  wrote  some 
thing  touching  about  the  sound  of  "the  church-going 
bell,"  and  other  bards  of  a  melancholy  bent  have  sen 
timentalized  about  the  bells  of  Shandon  and  of  St. 
Petersburg.  Indeed  somebody  has  ventured  the  incred 
ible  statement  that  Napoleon  halted  in  mid-career  on  a 
hilltop  to  listen  to  the  bells  of  Brienne.  This  may  be 


222  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

poetical,  but  it  is  puerile.  Why  rack  the  nerves  of  sick 
people  on  a  week  night  or  break  the  stillness  of  the 
holy  day  by  the  "wrangling  and  the  jangling  of  the 
bells,  bells,  bells?"  Poe  and  Schiller  seemed  to  have 
had  a  reverence  for  bells,  but  both  were  slightly  daft. 
As  a  means  of  assembling  the  faithful  on  the  patriotic 
we  prefer  the  Muezzin's  call  or  the  stentorian  shout  of 
the  old-fashioned  town-crier. 


IN  A  SICK  CHAMBER. — There  is  a  singular  fascination 
for  most  readers  in  that  sort  of  literature  which  savors 
of  autobiography.  Hence  the  vast  popularity  of  such 
works  as  ' '  Caesar's  Commentaries, "  "  The  Confession  of 
St.  Augustine,"  and  "  Bishop  Burnett's  History  of  His 
Own  Time."  The  same  holds  good  in  regard  to  fictive 
literature,  such  as  the  "Jane  Eyre,"  of  Miss  Bronte, 
and  the  "David  Copperfield, ''  of  Dickens,  where  the 
sitter  and  the  artist  are  the  same  person.  I  find  myself, 
as  I  grow  older,  likely  to  fall  into  this  autobiographic 
strain,  as  will  appear  in  this  paper,  dictated  in  a  sick 
chamber.  On  the  4th  of  March  instant,  my  sixty-fifth 
birthday,  I  was  closely  shut  in  by  stress  of  weather  and 
a  thoroughly  orthodox  attack  of  la  grippe.  Not  a  slight 
nasal  catarrh,  but  such  an  attack  as  might  suggest  to  the 
sufferer  the  hug  of  a  grizzly,  or  the  grasp  of  a  devil  fish  ; 
an  attack  involving  both  the  anterior  and  posterior  nares, 
both  eyes  and  ears ;  the  meatus  auditorius  ex  let  mis  throb 
bing  and  buzzing  as  if  the  Anvil  Chorus  was  being 
played  in  the  next  room.  Shade  of  Esculapius !  Was 
such  an  influenza  known  in  the  infancy  of  medical 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  223 

science  ?  It  will  be  observed  that  my  own  birthday  and 
that  of  Robert  Emmet,  the  young  Irish  patriot,  fall 
upon  the  same  day  of  the  calendar,  the  inauguration 
day  of  the  American  Presidents.  Thinking  of  Emmet, 
I  recall  a  dramatic  representation  of  the  trial  scene  of 
the  young  patriot  at  Hamilton,  Ga.  As  I  distinctly 
remember,  Colonel  W.  C.  Osborn,  the  village  Boniface, 
personated  Lord  Norbury,  the  presiding  justice.  A 
bright  young  lawyer  of  the  village,  a  nephew  of  old 
Governor  Strong,  of  Massachusetts,  enacted  the  part  of 
young  Emmet  with  brilliant  success.  After  the  applause 
which  followed  the  delivery  of  Emmet's  notable  defense, 
another  cultured  gentleman  rose  and  recited,  most  touch- 
ingly,  the  lines  of  the  Irish  bard  inscribed  to  the  memory 
of  Miss  Curran,  the  fiancee  of  the  Irish  martyr,  begin 
ning: 

"  She  is  far  from  the  land  where  her  young  hero  sleeps." 

These  lines  are,  perhaps,  the  best,  certainly  the  ten- 
derest  of  Moore's  melodies,  saving  that  other  beginning  : 

"Come  rest  in  this  bosom,  my  own  stricken  dear." 

It  is  a  lamentable  fact  that  Emmet's  epitaph  is  still 
unwritten,  in  the  closing  decade  of  the  nineteenth  cen 
tury.  Nor  is  it  likely  to  be  written  for  another  half 
century,  if  that  greatest  living  Englishman,  Gladstone, 
is  to  be  handicapped  by  such  a  marplot  as  Charles 
Stewart  Parnell.  My  charming  amanuensis,  who  had 
written  thus  far,  remarked  that  she  preferred  Moore's 
sacred  songs  to  any  of  his  other  melodies.  Not  bad 
taste,  we  replied,  for  he  wrote  nothing  better  than 


224  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

"  Come,  Ye  Disconsolate."  Strange  besides,  that  a 
devotee  of  fashion  and  frivolity  should  have  written  a 
poem  whose  pious  sentiment  should  have  so  deeply 
touched  the  religious  sensibilities  of  mankind. 

There  are  lights  as  well  as  shadows  in  a  sick  chamber. 
To  say  nothing  of  rare  delicacies,  kindly  sent  by  gentle 
friends,  that  might  coax  an  appetite  when  sorely  impaired 
by  disease,  and  then  fruits  ard  flowers  that  bring  the 
sunlight  and  autumn  into  the  closely  curtained  chamber. 
But  there  are  better  things  than  even  the  presence  and 
prayers  of  godly  visitors,  clerical  and  lay.  Likewise, 
occasional  letters  from  distant  friends  full  of  brotherly 
sympathy.  Witness  the  following  that  reached  me 
amidst  a  steady  downpour  from  a  leaden  sky.  I  was 
feeling  like  Romeo  when  the  friar  told  him  he  was 
"wedded  to  calamity,"  when  this  sunburst  broke  on 
me. 

C ,  March  9,    1891. — Dear  Brother  Scott:     My 

habit  is  to  read  everything  from  your  pen,  and  of  you  ; 
so  I  thought  much  and  prayed  about  you  when  I  read 
a  notice  of  your  illness  in  some  paper  a  week  ago.  I 
hope  you  are  "over  it"  now — "about  again."  Your 
pen  has  been  of  exceeding  usefulness  in  taking  readers 
into  religious  growth  and  light  where  men  are  not  apt 
to  look  for  them,  and  in  a  way  so  charming  and  unusual 
as  to  make  them  absorb  the  religious  and  the  literary, 
put  in  the  scholarly  style.  May  only  good  come  to. 
you,  and  constantly. 

Somehow  the  things  that  seem  fittest  don't  come  to  pass. 
I  have  thought  that  the  Nashville  Christian  Advocate,  in 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  225 

your  care  the  last  eight  years,  would  have  set  things 
forward  in  the  connection.  You  are  Wesleyan,  with 
the  addition  of  the  light  of  the  century  since  Wesley 
died.  You  think,  and  have  thought  clear,  greater  than 
the  average  great  things  the  papers  have  needed  for  the 
people.  You  are  broad  without  mockery  for  the  narrow, 
and  religious  without  posing  for  its  fame.  I  have  often 
thought,  too,  that  many  years  ago  I  was  wiser  in  urging 
you  to  transfer  to  New  Orleans,  and  do  for  Methodism 
there  what  Dr.  Palmer  did  for  Presbyterianism,  than 
you  were  in  declining.  By  now  you  would  have  had 
us  to  the  front  there.  Yet,  who  knows?  Yours  may 
have  been  quite  the  wiser  after  all.  And  "the  lines" 
you  have  wrought  in  your  lifework  may  be  those  whose 
light  shall  shine  farthest  and  best. 

May  God  keep  you  to  the  end.  It  is  after  "the 
end  "  that  one's  record  is  entered  up  and  the  true  "  well 
done  "  pronounced.  If  I  could  bless  you,  old  comrade, 
I  would  pray  our  God  comfort,  heal,  renew  your  life, 
bless  you  for  me.  Yours  truly, 


We  withhold  the  name,  with  the  single  statement 
that  it  was  a  love-token  from  a  minister  and  author  of 
much  distinction.  It  is  a  model  of  letter  writing. 


Dr.  H.  V.  M.  Miller,  who  is  perhaps  the  brainiest 
man  in  half  a  dozen  states,  spent  an  hour  with  me  a 
few  days  ago.  I  was  struck  with  one  observation. 
Said  he,  "  Scott,  you  know  that  it  is  the  extremist  that 
carries  the  day  in  a  political  contest."  This  single 


15 


226  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

remark  opened  the  way  to  much  talk  about  Cromwell 
and  his  saints,  who  ejected  the  Presbyterians  from  the 
long  parliament.  This  quite  naturally  suggested  the 
stubborn  fight  between  the  Girondists  and  Jacobins — 
ending  in  the  utter  overthrow  of  the  former.  Next  in 
order,  the  contest  between  the  conservatives  and  the 
secessionists,  winding  up  with  the  dismemberment  of 
the  Union  and  a  war  between  the  states.  Then  the  con 
flict  between  President  Johnson  and  the  congressional 
majority,  as  to  the  mode  of  reconstruction.  Andrew 
Johnson  was  near  losing  his  official  head,  and  Thad 
Stevens  and  his  gang  were  left  masters  of  the  situation. 
"  What  bearing  has  this,"  said  Miller,  "on  the  pending 
struggle  between  Livingston  and  Northen  ? "  I  only 
replied  in  the  language  of  Father  Ritchie,  "  Nous 
venom." 


"  Liberty  Hall "  was  properly  named,  for  Mr.  Steph 
ens  kept  open  house  for  all  comers.  On  two  occasions 
I  was  a  guest  of  the  great  commoner,  and  was  accorded 
the  freedom  of  the  old-style  mansion.  His  hospitality 
was  not  lavish,  as  measured  by  dinner  courses  or  ser 
vants  in  livery,  but  there  was  a  gracious  welcome  and  a 
menu  that  was  toothsome  and  abundant. 

During  my  two  visits  I  had  an  opportunity  of  study 
ing  the  character  of  this  great  man  when  he  was  free 
from  conventional  restraints,  and  in  some  sort  en  desha 
bille.  I  could  but  notice  that  because  of  his  delicate 
organism  he  was  exceedingly  impressible  by  atmospheric 
changes.  He  watched  the  mercury  in  his  thermome- 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  227 

ter  with  very  great  interest.  He  would  frequently  shift 
his  chair  from  one  room  to  another,  and  from  the  veranda 
to  the  hall.  Let  it  not  be  inferred,  however,  that  he 
was  in  the  least  annoyed  by  hypochondriac  fancies.  On 
the  contrary,  notwithstanding  his  physical  weakness  and 
his  frequent  bodily  sufferings,  he  was  uniformly  cheerful 
and  at  times  buoyant  in  spirits.  His  conversation,  in 
his  lighter  moods,  was  seasoned  with  genuine  attic  salt, 
and  enlivened  with  incidents  oftentimes  exquisitely 
humorous. 

On  one  occasion,  I  asked  him  to  give  me  his  impres 
sions  of  some  of  the  foremost  of  his  congressional  asso 
ciates  of  ante-bellum  days.  I  can  recall  but  a  few  of 
these  graphic  word  portraits.  He  regarded  Thad  Stev 
ens  as  a  man  of  massive  brain  with  a  lack  of  literary 
culture,  and  a  dash  of  coarseness  in  his  composition. 
He  thought  his  political  integrity  was  unimpeachable, 
but  his  anti-slavery  sentiments  sometimes  amounted  to 
a  political  craze.  Billy  Allen,  of  Ohio,  had  a  similar 
moral  and  mental  make-up,  except  that  Allen  was  a 
Democrat  of  the  Jacksonian  type.  Tom  Corwin,  of  the 
same  state,  he  thought,  had  few  equals  in  a  rough-and- 
tumble  debate,  whether  on  the  floor  of  Congress  or  on 
the  hustings.  Henry  Clay,  as  might  be  supposed,  was 
his  ideal  of  a  statesman.  Webster,  he  esteemed  as  the 
greater  constitutional  lawyer,  but  inferior  to  Calhoun  in 
philosophical  range  of  intellect.  Seward,  of  New  York, 
he  considered  one  of  the  cleverest  thinkers  and  readiest 
debaters  of  the  United  States  Senate.  His  friend 


228  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

Toombs,  however,  he  regarded  as  easily  first  as  a  sena 
torial  speaker  when  he  had  a  great  theme  and  a  momen 
tous  occasion. 

I  remember  nothing  in  my  personal  experience  equal 
in  interest  to  these  off-hand  sketches  in  this  simple  con 
versation  of  the  sage  of  Liberty  Hall.  Amongst  other 
anecdotes  which  he  related,  there  was  ore  that  will  bear 
repetition.  He  was  engaged  in  a  very  important  trial 
in  Greene  Superior  Court.  After  the  case  had  been 
argued  and  the  jury  had  retired,  he  accepted  the  invita 
tion  of  a  wealthy  Whig  planter  to  spend  the  night  with 
him  at  his  country  residence,  some  five  miles  from  the 
village.  Just  at  sunset  the  planter  drove  up  to  Mr. 
Stephens's  hotel  with  a  spanking  team  of  blooded  horses. 
Mr.  Stephens  took  his  seat,  and  his  friend,  with  a  word 
to  his  horses  and  a  tap  on  the  withers  of  the  leader, 
started  at  a  2  :  40  pace.  They  had  gone  but  a  short 
distance  when  Mr.  Stephens  became  a  little  nervous, 
and  demurred  at  such  a  rate  of  speed.  His  friend  said 
to  him,  "  Aleck,  I  always  suffer  you  to  do  my  thinking 
in  politics,  but  when  it  comes  to  driving  horses  I  pro 
pose  to  do  my  own  thinking."  Mr.  Stephens  says  he 
saw  that  remonstrance  was  fruitless  and  accordingly 
accepted  the  situation.  Of  course  everything  went  well, 
and  in  due  time  he  was  safely  seated  at  the  hospitable 
board  of  the  planter.  My  last  interview  with  Mr. 
Stephens  was  at  the  residence  of  Dr.  Setze,  of  Marietta, 
Ga  He  was  then  on  his  crutches,  but  had  lost  none  of 
his  mental  vivacity  nor  his  relish  for  an  occasional  pota 
tion  of  "pure  Jeffersonian  Democracy,"  nor  his  liking 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  22Q 

for  a  game  of  whist,  which  almost  invariably  followed 
his  evening  cup  of  tea. 


Hundreds  of  people  have  heard  of  Edmund  Burke's 
great  speech  on  the  trial  of  Warren  Hastings.  It  was 
only  eclipsed  by  Sheridan's  thrilling  effort,  which  pro 
duced  such  a  sensation  in  the  house  that  a  motion  to 
adjourn  was  unanimously  carried,  because  that  body 
was  in  no  mood  to  transact  business.  A  lesser  number 
have  likewise  read  Burke's  brilliant  essay  on  the  "  Sub 
lime  and  Beautiful,"  one  of  the  masterpieces  of  English 
belles  letters.  Not  a  few  have  read  of  his  sparkling  bon 
mots,  at  the  Turk's  Head,  where  he  was  esteemed  the 
best  talker  in  a  club  that  numbered  Johnson  and  Garrick 
and  Goldsmith  and  lesser  lights  among  its  members. 

But  how  many  know  of  a  fact  that  Thackeray  has 
recorded  that  going  home  from  the  club  one  night  Burke 
was  Accosted  by  a  fallen  woman,  and  was  so  moved  by 
her  tears,  that  he  carried  her  to  the  house  of  his  own 
wife  and  children,  and  kept  her  there  until  he  could 
place  her  where  she  was  restored  to  virtue  and  industry. 
This  was  a  greater  honor  to  the  illustrious  statesman 
than  his  greatest  forensic  efforts  or  his  noble  letter  to 
his  Bristol  constituents.  And  then  how  Christly  the 
conduct  of  that  London  grocer,  of  whom  Spurgeon  tells 
us.  This  good  Samaritan  devoted  his  money  largely  to 
the  rescuing  of  this  unfortunate  class.  At  the  door  of 
his  business  place  he  posted  this  invitation  :  "If  there 
be  any  unfortunate  sister  who  is  without  a  home,  and 
desires  to  do  better,  let  her  apply  within."  It  was 


23O  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS. 

estimated  that  1 50  of  the  Magdalens  of  the  great  metrop 
olis  were  reclaimed  from  a  life  of  shame  and  wretched 
ness  by  his  efforts.  Individual  charity  of  this  kind  is 
good  to  lead  the  way  in  this  and  similar  enterprises,  but 
it  is  simply  preparatory  to  organized  effort,  which,  rightly 
conducted,  will  accomplish  grand  results. 

Atlanta  needs  a  "  home  "  for  this  class,  and  the  time 
is  ripe  for  its  establishment.  Let  it  be  inaugurated 
under  proper  auspices  and  its  success  is  assured.  In 
this  way,  and  in  no  other,  we  may  extract  -the  sting  of 
Tom  Hood's  reproach,  which  applies  to  every  city  of 
50,000  inhabitants,  that  has  made  no  such  provision : 

"  O,  it  was  pitiful, 
Near  a  whole  city  full, 
Home  she  had  none." 


The  shooting  of  Chief,  the  crazy  elephant,  was  a 
monstrous  cruelty.  Where,  we  might  ask,  were  the 
Humane  Societies  that  funeralize  a  dead  ass,  and  sit  up 
of  nights  with  a  sick  monkey,  when  this  murder  was 
perpetrated,  without  an  indignant  protest?  If  there  be 
a  Heaven,  as  John  Wesley  more  than  hinted,  for  birds 
and  beasts,  then  surely  this  emperor  of  quadrupeds 
must  have  already  reached  some  tropical  region  in  that 
undiscovered  country  where  he  trumpets  and  tramps 
through  broad  and  fertile  savannas  without  fear  of  pit 
falls  and  other  snares  for  his  capture  and  enslavement. 


Almost  simultaneously  with  the  death  of  Chief,  was 
the  assassination  of  Sitting  Bull,  the  Sioux  warrior. 
Was  this  redskin  savage  less  a  hero  than  the  British 


PARAGRAPHIC    PENCILINGS.  23! 

Caractacus  or  the  German  Orgetorix?  Was  not  his 
patriotism  as  pure  as  that  of  Horatius,  who  kept  the 
bridge,  or  Leonidas,  who  held  the  pass  with  his  300 
Spartans  ? 

But  Sitting  Bull  has  departed  under  the  constraint  of  a 
well  aimed  pistol  shot  to  the  "happy  hunting  grounds, " 
whither  Osceola,  Tecumseh,  Red  Jacket  and  other 
Indian  braves  long  ago  preceded  him.  In  those  virgin 
forests,  untroddenby  the  foot  of  the  paleface,  undisturbed 
by  the  ring  of  the  pioneer's  ax,  he  may  even  now  be 
chasing  the  bison  and  the  deer,  without  dread  of  military 
molestation.  Tell  us,  if  you  will,  that  "the  hunter 
and  the  deer  are  both  a  shade."  Far  better  this  delu 
sive  dream  than  the  hopelessness  of  the  Atheist's  creed. 


AT  CHRISTMAS  TIDE,  1891, 

in  my  boyhood,  I  contributed  occasional  verses  to 
the  Georgia  press.  My  old-time  friends,  W.  T. 
Thompson  and  C.  R.  Hanleiter,  detected  a  bud  of 
promise  in  these  juvenile  effusions.  For  their  kindly 
recognition  I  was  then  and  am  still  profoundly  grateful. 

At  a  later  period,  when  a  young  lawyer,  I  was  struck 
with  the  saying  of  Sir  William  Blackstone,  that  the  law 
was  a  "jealous  mistress."  Realizing  that  I  had  no 
special  skill  "to  build  the  lofty  rhyme,"  like  the  great 
commentator,  I,  too,  wrote  "  A  Farewell  to  the  Muse." 
From  that  date,  nearly  fifty  years  ago,  I  did  not 
attempt  poetry.  During  the  recent  holidays,  however, 


232  PARAGRAPHIC    PENCIL1NGS. 

I  felt  afresh  my  boyish  impulse.  Weather-bound, 
and  almost  bed-ridden,  I  scribbled  on  scraps  of  paper 
the  following  lines,  which  have  much  of  the  sadness 
and  but  little  of  the  sweetness  of  the  fabled  song  of  the 
"  Dying  Swan  :  '' 

IN  MY  SIXTY  SIXTH  YEAR. 

"  To-day  shalt  thou  be  with  Me  in  Paradise."      Words 
spoken  on  the  cross. 

Lord !  I  am  weary  with  the  stress 

Of  three-score  years  and  more, 
Whose  blinding  storms  and  beating  waves 

Have  left  me  stranded  on  the  shore. 

Across  the  stretch  of  years  already  trod 
Ofttimes  I've  felt  the  pressure  of  Thy  hand, 

Nor  will  I  doubt,  in  darkest  mood, 
Thou  yet  wil't  bring  me  to  the  better  laud. 

Along  that  lonely  pilgrim  way  there  lie 
The  wrecks  of  blighted  hopes  and  vanished  joys, 

O'er  these  I  breathe  an  un regretful  sigh — 
These  meaner  things  that  chance  or  change  destroys. 

But  life  has  loftier  aims  than  these  beside, 
Like  far-off  stars  that  neither  wax  nor  wane 

With  rolling  years,  but  evermore  abide, 
As  magian  fires  in  some  high  Persian  fane. 

Wherefore,  Oh  Christ,  I  kiss  the  rod 
Which  smites  me  downward  to  the  dust; 

Such  strokes  shall  lure  me  closer  to  my  God, 
And  bind  me  stronger  to  my  steadfast  trust. 

Beyond  the  utmost  sweep  of  life's  tempestuous  main 
He  hath  prepared  a  restful  place  for  me, 

Where  severed  friends  shall  meet  again 
In  joyauiice  and  in  harmony. 

O'er  that  sun-bright  Beulah  lea 

No  darkening  storm  will  ever  rise ; 
For  aye  and  aye  I  shall  with  Thee 

Be  safe  at  home  in  Paradise. 


UNIVERSITY  of  CALIFORNIA 

AT 

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